


Beyond the Stars

by thetransgirlwhoneverwas



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios), Power Rangers
Genre: F/F, Post-Beyond the Grid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetransgirlwhoneverwas/pseuds/thetransgirlwhoneverwas
Summary: The Void is no longer on the brink of death. Thanks to the efforts of the Solar Rangers, the universe has been restored to the Morphing Grid. But the work of a Solar Ranger is never finished, and Ellarien and Remi have evil to fight, a team to build, and an entire universe to safeguard.A sequel to Beyond the Grid.
Relationships: Ellarien/Remi
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Ellarien screamed - not in pain or fear but in furious effort - and threw her chakram with enough force to pierce straight through the animated rock creature whose grasp she had broken free from. She dashed away from it, whirling around a full spin and a half, allowing her feet to leave the ground as she lifted her right foot into a spinning kick that impacted the head of another such creature approaching her from behind. She landed, spinning in the other direction and sweeping her foot across the floor, taking the sprawling creature’s legs out from under it and noting with satisfaction how it crumpled to the ground. She stood and held up her hand, not even having to look as her chakram returned to her, and punched it down into the centre of the creature’s mass, energy erupting as the various rocks and stones comprising her target returned to their natural state of stillness.

She stood, anticipating another attack, but too late, as she noticed another, smaller but much faster rock creature less than a second away from hitting her with its oversized stone fist. She braced for impact, cursing herself for her carelessness, but no impact came, as an object came briefly into view from the corner of her right eye and quickly disappeared out of the corner of her left, taking the creature with it. She looked and saw the creature pinned to a not-especially-nearby wall by a distinctive orange spear.

“Thanks,” she said into her helmet’s receiver.

“Nothin’ to it,” came the reply from the speakers.

Ellarien looked over to where the spear had come from and saw a suit of orange armour punch a rock creature so hard its head came clean from the rest of its body, before summoning her spear back into her hands with a brief flash of orange light. She spun it around herself, deflecting three large rocks thrown at her, before ducking another and dashing forwards, leaping through the air and impaling the thrower on her spear, using the leverage to throw it into another. Not for the first time, Ellarien admired the sheer strength that she had, and her mind was momentarily tempted to start daydreaming about the muscled arms underneath the armour, but she shook herself back to reality. She had grown up fighting, spent her entire life fighting. Nothing could distract her from a battle. Nothing except Remi.

A pair of creatures had tried to use this opportunity to sneak up behind her, but huge piles of walking stone were never very stealthy, and Ellarien was already prepared. She split her chakram in two, wielding the halves as bladed knuckles, and spun around suddenly, her hands almost imperceptible as she slashed at the creatures, driving them back and onto the defensive, parts of them falling from their bodies as she hacked and ripped. Eventually the creatures fell back, collapsing back into stillness as whatever had caused them to start moving and trying to kill wore off.

Another creature approached her from behind, and she turned and cut back its fists. She kicked out one of the rocks approximating a knee, and as the creature fell to one leg, she used the collapsed leg as a step to leap up and kick the creature in the head, using it as another step to spring into the air, backflipping away from the creature and flinging her chakram at the centre of the creature’s mass, another pulse of energy from the weapon sending the creature’s parts flying.

“Ari!” the voice came through her speakers again, and Ellarien looked to her left to see Remi being slowly approached by four creatures at once, one of which was holding her spear. She ran towards them, throwing her fist out to push away another creature trying to grab her as she desperately tried to reach Remi. Seeing an outcrop of rock in front of her, and another higher one just beyond, she jumped into the air, bounding off of both platforms and raising her arms above her head, her chakram materialising in a two handed grip.

“Mind if I cut in?!” she yelled as she brought the weapon down hard, cutting the rock monster holding Remi’s spear clean in two, before separating the weapon and rising, rending the heads from the creatures to her left and right in a single fluid motion. The spear fell towards the ground, but was caught by Remi, and before the single remaining creature had a chance to react, she had swept it off its feet with the weighted shaft, spun it into a backhand grip, and thrown it at point blank range straight through the creature’s torso, pinning it to the ground for the few seconds it continued to flail before falling still and falling apart.

The battleground was quiet for a few seconds, before Remi’s head turned towards Ari. The reflective surface of her visor hid the sardonic glare behind it, but Ari knew it was there.

“Mind if I cut in?” Remi mocked.

“Should I not save your life next time?” Ari shot back. She breathed deeply, and as she breathed out she felt a small wind blowing around her as her purple armour faded around her. She opened her eyes, coming face to face to Remi’s wide grin and they pulled each other into an embrace. Ari felt Remi smile into the kiss and couldn’t stop herself smiling back. The kiss ended when Remi couldn’t stop herself from laughing any longer. Ari looked behind her to see what the problem was, and suddenly was aware that they had an audience. The natives who had been besieged by the rock creatures, having hid in the large building at the centre of the town the entire time the Solar Rangers were battling them, were now emerging from what Ari had presumed was a hall or church into safety. Someone - Ari didn’t see who - started to clap, and within a few seconds the whole town was applauding, with cheers and shouts of “thank you!” peppered in. 

Ari motioned to do what she normally did in this kind of situation: put up her hood and leave before she got roped into a situation that might involve talking to people, but she stopped and questioned why. She had spent her whole life running from the Crimson Raiders and their leader, the Praetor, protecting the Solarix. Anyone she had gotten attached to in her past life had almost inevitably ended up dead, and that had defined her life for so long. But the Praetor was dead, the Crimson Raiders scattered and disorganised, and the Solarix was no longer her sole duty. The universe they inhabited had been reconnected to the Grid, Remi too was now a protector, and once they found new recruits like they planned, they had dreamed of a whole new team of Solar Rangers. She turned, unsure of how to respond to the people’s praise, but determined not to run from it anymore. 

Remi clearly had a much better idea of how to respond, waving cheerfully, and Ari almost expected her to take a bow. The idea made her smile to herself, and Remi glanced over just at that moment.

“There’s that smile!” she beamed, switching to waving with her other hand so she could hold Ari’s. Ari shakily started doing the same, unsure and feeling not a little foolish, but the people they had just saved seemed to respond positively. A woman emerged from the crowd. Smiling, but slightly less so than the others and looking more serious, she approached the Solar Rangers. Remi’s vulpine ears lost a little of their perkiness, but they stayed up nonetheless.

“On behalf of our town, I’d like to offer all of our thanks,” the woman, the leader Ari assumed, began.

“It was nothin’ really,” Remi started, but Ellarien had been thinking.

“Do you know why these monsters attacked you?” she asked. “Anything they might have been after?”

“Anything at all?” Remi played along, but whispered into Ellarien’s ear. “Rust an’ ruin Ari, can’t you just enjoy it for a minute?”

The leader looked thoughtful for a second, leading Ari to assume she was about to explain something important, some item or nearby location that somebody would be after, vital enough to kill everyone there for it. Though, as she remembered from her dealings with the Crimson Raiders, there was no shortage of people, inspired by greed, for whom killing everyone around something they wanted was as casually and callously done as eating a cooked animal.

“No,” the woman finally said, shaking her head, and Ari was shocked to find she genuinely believed her. “There’s nothing important or special or even that interesting around here. I hate to sound like a cliché, but we're pretty humble people here. I can’t even begin to imagine what they could have been after.”

“No worries!” Remi reassured her. Ari had a thought, but decided to discuss it with Remi later, back on their spaceship.

“Thanks anyway,” she said. “Hopefully you shouldn’t have anymore problems like this, but if you do, you know how to call us.”

“I can’t imagine living rock monsters is a particularly common occurrence anyway,” the leader joked.

“More than you’d think,” Ari muttered, remembering the recent string of almost identical attacks she and Remi had spent the past couple of weeks fending off.

“In any case, the place is safe, and what a lovely place it is!” Remi tried to lighten the mood again. It worked, and the leader’s face brightened a little. She turned briefly and made a few hand gestures Ari didn’t understand in the slightest, but definitely meant something to some of the people in the front of the crowd who were still applauding, but slightly quieter now. They left, and Ari didn’t bother to question where.

“You must be tired, and hungry after that fight,” the leader implored. “Stay a while, we’ll set up a meal. It’s the least we can do.”

“We really need to-” Ari started, but stopped herself, and Remi took advantage of her hesitation to interrupt.

“Aww, you’re far too kind!” she said. “Frost an' fracture, we’d love to stay for a bit, and what kind of rude rebels would we be if we refused?”

“Wonderful!” the leader smiled, starting to walk away to make preparations, leaving Ari and Remi to themselves.

“Rebels?” Ari asked quietly.

“You try coming up with a funny insult to call yourself on short notice,” Remi shot back. Ari glared in an entirely playful manner. Remi beamed at her. “Come on, it’ll be fun, and I didn’t want to say it but I’m hungry enough that I was tempted to eat one of those rocks!”

“I’m almost tempted to leave just to see what happens.”

“Naw, you like me well fed,” Remi laughed, before dropping her voice into a seductive whisper. “It makes me all cuddly and affectionate.”

Ari tried for a second to formulate a response, but quickly gave up and pulled Remi into another kiss, more passionate than the one they had shared just minutes ago. They finally surface, and Ari whispered “how’s that for affectionate?” into Remi’s ear before sauntering in the direction of the hall, leaving Remi stunned for a solid few seconds before she ran to catch up. Ari laughed to herself. For all her confidence and life of the party attitude, Remi was irresistible when she was flustered.

The festivities came and went in a flurry of activity Ari barely registered. She certainly enjoyed it, and found herself wondering if this was what it really meant to be a hero. Uncomfortable as she was with the idea of others worshipping her, she couldn’t help but be proud of the work she and Remi had done, and discovered through the other people joining the meal that gratitude, something she had experienced very little of in her life until now, felt good. They had fought off attacks like this before plenty of times recently - sometimes rock creatures, sometimes Crimson Raider remnants, and once it was a mass of tentacles that each appeared to have a mind of its own - but most of those had happened in relatively remote locations. This was the first time they had seen any celebrations for them.

Remi, of course she noted, was absolutely at home at a party, laughing and joking the whole time and doing her best to talk to as many people as possible. Not for the first time, Ari felt she wished she could be more like Remi. Not in an envious way, she was nothing but happy for Remi’s social success, but she wished she could let go of her various traumas. She had spent her life running, but she didn’t need to run anymore, so why couldn’t she let it go?

She was snapped out of her melancholy, however, by Remi kissing her quickly on the cheek.

“That was for surprising me earlier,” she winked.

“I’ll make a note to...surprise you more in future,” Ari winked back, and allowed herself to enjoy the meal again. It had been a collaborative effort by much of the town, and it really was the best meal she’d had in a long time, not that she’d ever tell Remi that. The two had decided to learn how to cook for themselves after experiencing the less-than-stellar cooking on Promethea, and Remi had taken to it much better than Ari had. The benefits of running a tavern for so long.

Once the meal was over they said their goodbyes, and promised to come again if the need ever arose. They walked together back to their ship, and Ari set the controls back to Remi’s tavern on the Amethyst Asteroid. They had picked up the ship on an abandoned asteroid soon after Promethea had returned to its native universe, along with everyone they had met there. It was significantly bigger than Ari’s old one-person probe, and although the ship had clearly crashed on the asteroid and the crew had not survived, it still worked. They had buried the old crew, paid their respects, fixed the ship up as best they could and now used it as a mobile base away from Remi’s tavern, although neither of them expected it to last very long with the damage they hadn’t had the skill to fix.

Once she’d set the coordinates, Ari sat in the common area of the ship near the window looking out into the void. Stars and planets drifted by, an endless procession of lights and colours as they flew across the galaxy. She wondered which ones still had life, which ones were just developing life. The universe had been in its death throes for her whole lifetime, and only recently, now it had been reconnected to the Grid, had new life begun to spark. Her contemplation was interrupted by Remi collapsing into the seat beside her. Ari leaned over to hold her again - she really couldn’t resist around Remi - but she leaned away from it, frowning.

“So what in rapture was that about back there?” she asked. “Trying to run away from the people thanking you? Why didn’t you want to stay for the feast?”

“You know me, Remi,” Ari sighed back. “After my whole life it’s...it’s hard to stop running from everyo-”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Remi interrupted, and Ari blinked nonplussed. “I get that, I do, and I’ve nothing but sympathy for your grim childhood and you know that. But I’ve seen that from you and this was something else. Like you had something else to do.”

The corners of Ari’s mouth turned up in vague amusement. “I really can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

“Would you want to?”

“No,” she said without hesitation, and sighed. She was quiet for a moment, then decided to lay everything out. “These attacks are coming from somewhere. Something’s coordinating them, and I didn’t think it was a problem for a while. But they’re too numerous to be random, and now they’re attacking populated areas. People.”

“Yeah,” Remi agreed. “I had thought about that.”

“I think we need to see if we can find out who is behind these attacks, because someone wants people afraid,” Ari continued. “And I want to know why and what they get from that.”

“Ari, you…” Remi started. “You don’t think, maybe it’s-”

“No,” Ari interrupted, meaning to be reassuring. She wasn’t sure that was how it came across. “The Praetor is dead. We saw that, we made sure of it. It’s not him. It’s something else.”

“Well, whatever it is,” Remi sat up, “we can deal with it. We killed an evil Morphing Master who had the whole universe on the edge of giving up. We can beat some coward throwing rocks at people.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ari agreed. Despite her intentions, she was the one feeling reassured. Remi could always have that effect on her.

“And besides, if we’re tired and starving from never giving ourselves a rest, what use will we be?” she asked, not waiting for an answer. “We shouldn’t avoid enjoying ourselves because there’s work to be done. That’s why we’ve gotta enjoy ourselves.”

She stopped leaning back, and her expression indicated she was waiting for Ari to try cuddling up to her again, but before she could her ears twitched, and a second later a crashing sound echoed into the room from the bridge. The two stopped and looked at each other, then another crash came from the same direction, and they sprang up onto their feet and ran down the hall, following the noises that were now becoming more numerous. The door to the bridge opened and they dashed in, but when they saw the state of it they stopped in their tracks, Ari feeling a sense of horror rising in her.

“How did they get on board?” Remi shouted, panic in her voice.

The bridge was swarming with rock creatures attacking consoles, ripping out wires and destroying everything they could see. The noise was cacophonous; alarms blared, lights flashed, sparks flew, fires started,and everything was being broken. A few of the creatures noticed the two somehow, and started lumbering towards them. Ari and Remi raised their left hands to shoulder height, fists closed, palms facing towards them.

“Solar-” they started to call, but as a monster ripped one of the consoles out of the floor entirely the ship lurched and tipped to the side and the two lost balance, trying to catch each other as they fell. Ari caught a brief glimpse of a screen noting they were caught in the gravitational pull of a small planet before the screen was smashed by a stone fist. Her head hit the wall hard, and her vision started to blur. She realised she was no longer holding onto Remi, but her head was hurting too much to see where she went. Ari heard something - Remi’s voice shouting something, but it was far too indistinct to hear what she was saying - and her vision started to go dark as the ship fell out of the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

“-ri! Ari! Wake up!”

Ellarien’s senses awoke one by one. First she heard a voice - Remi, it was Remi! - shouting her name. Then she smelled smoke and burning air. Then she felt the pain in her head. And finally she opened her eyes to see the indistinct, blurred, but still recognisable figure in orange armour in front of her. She blinked several times quickly to focus her vision and looked around the bridge. The rock monsters were still destroying as much as they could, but there were fewer of them now, and she became aware that she had been tuning out the alarms still blaring a discordant chorus of warnings.

“How...how long-” she started, her voice only barely working as her body became reacquainted with consciousness limb by limb. She winced, remembering the blow her head had taken as it throbbed with pain again.

“Just a minute!” Remi answered, her voice calmer than it was but still tinged with fear. “I took a few of them out, but we don’t have a lot of time!”

Ari stood with Remi’s help, stumbling with the violent rocking of the ship, but steadying herself. She nodded at Remi, who let go of her. Ari found her balance, and raised her hand to shoulder height again, before touching her right palm to the device on the back of her left hand and shouting “Solar Power!”

She felt the air rush around her and closed her eyes as her vision was filled with blinding light. When it faded, she opened her eyes to see the bridge through her visor. Her purple armour having materialised around her, she moved into a fighting stance, Remi doing the same beside her. She charged towards the creatures, who now appeared to notice them and tried to turn their attention away from their sabotage towards the defenders, but too late. Ari leapt, spinning in the air and feeling her boot connect with the head of the closest monster with enough force to launch it into the far wall. More creatures approached her, and one swung a fist, but she blocked it and countered with her own punches to the weakest looking rocks she could see on its body, punctuating her blows with yells.

“Get! Off! Our! Ship!”

“Take this!” she heard Remi shout as she saw her drive a fist into another creature’s midsection, making it double over, before raising her leg above her head and bringing her heel down into the back of the creature’s neck, severing its head entirely and causing the rest of the body to crumble. Another creature charged her, faster than the rest, but she simply stepped to the side and swung the back of her arm so the creature ran into it with enough force to make it flip over backwards on it’s way to the ground, where Remi, with a decisive shout of effort, stamped on the creature’s head to keep it there.

Ari heard another assailant behind her, and powered her elbow backwards into the creature, extending her arm out to backhand the creature in what should have been a face. It stumbled back, and Ari stepped towards it, thrusting a kick where her backhand had landed, and the creature fell back. She spun and directed a kick at another, they were everywhere, but before her kick landed a rocky fist caught it, the creature swinging it’s other fist at her upper leg from above. Ellarien hit the ground hard, grunting and gritting her teeth in pain, but counting her blessings: without the armour that would have been a broken leg. She scrambled away, trying to get up, but was given more time by the sight of Remi soaring through the air above her, performing a graceful yet deadly flying kick straight at the creature that had knocked Ari down. The creature fell back and, given some space, Remi took a second to summon her weapon, her spear flashing into her hands from nowhere, but rather than using it to defend herself at close range, she immediately threw the spear at the monster she had just kicked, impaling it and the one behind it. She turned and offered a hand.

“You okay?”

Ari took the hand and thanked Remi for helping her up. She winced at the pain in her leg, but knew it would fade in just a minute when she got back into the fight. She surveyed the bridge, but they had barely made a dent in the enemy force, and the ship was still falling. Out of the front window she could see land now. They weren’t far from impact, and they didn’t have nearly enough time to clear out the bridge. A crash landing was inevitable. She said as much to Remi, who nodded grimly in agreement.

“Maybe time to ditch the ship,” she said, sounding none too happy about the prospect.

“If she crashes, she can be fixed,” Ari agreed. “We can’t.”

Remi nodded, and as if on cue a garbled voice, barely distinguishable through the static, rang out over the alarms. “Altitude warning: sixty seconds until impact.”

“Escape pod, now!”

They left the bridge, leaving the monsters to their destruction. To Ari’s surprise, none of them attempted to follow. They ran down the halls, jumping down ladder shafts in the direction of the ship’s escape pod. The ship started to tip forward, the artificial gravity not strong enough to counteract the gravity of the planet they were rapidly hurtling towards, and the corridor to the escape pod bay became an uphill struggle. They were halfway down the hallway when they heard a mechanical beat, followed by a distinctive hiss.

“No!” Ari shouted ineffectually, as the single escape pod disengaged from the bay and was jettisoned away, leaving the two stranded on a crashing ship. The wind from outside blew in, almost knocking them back down the corridor, but they grabbed the railings on the sides of the corridor and held on.

“One of those things must have blown it from the bridge!” Remi reasoned. “These boulders are smarter than we thought!”

“Or they’re under the control of someone who really wants us dead!” Ari responded, but realised the point was academic. They still had no way off the ship, and they only had a few seconds before impact. “We’ll have to jump!”

“Jump?!” Remi shouted incredulously over her helmet’s radio. “We’ll never survive!”

“If we leave it until the last second we might!”

“Might?”

“It’s better than waiting until we crash!” Ari defended her suggestion. Remi said nothing, but didn’t argue. Ari climbed up the now almost vertical corridor, using the railings to pull herself up to the top and holding open the closing blast doors from where the escape pod used to be. The voice rang out again, echoing down the hall.

“Impact in five…”

Remi joined her at the end of the hall, pulling back the other blast door.

“Four…”

They climbed on top of the doors, suddenly blasted by the full force of the wind, but just avoided being blown away.

“Three…”

Remi reached her hand out towards Ari. She took it, and silently prayed for survival.

“Two…”

“Now!” Ari yelled, and leapt, Remi leaping with her. They pushed away from the ship, losing grip on each other’s hands as the wind pushed them away from each other, ascending for just a second before starting to fall, looking as far behind them as their heads could turn as their ship smashed into the ground, knocking down trees and skidding against the earth before coming to a stop after colliding hard with a huge rock formation, the front of the ship crumpling against it. The Rangers continued to fall, and although Ari was about to suggest spreading their limbs to slow their descent through air resistance, she immediately realised they were too close to the ground for it to make a difference.

“Brace!” she shouted, and in a second she hit the ground, hard and painfully, but her armour absorbed most of the impact. Nothing she couldn’t walk off. Remi landed a second after her, but as she did Ari saw her lose her footing and fall onto her back, and heard her scream into the radio. She rushed over shouting her name in panic and saw a small rock right where Remi’s left foot had landed. Her armour dissipated around her as she crouched to examine Remi, who was groaning slightly. Ari picked up her foot as Remi’s armour faded, and Ari took off her boot to see her ankle already starting to bruise and swell.

Ari cursed herself for not taking better care of her. “Your ankle is broken,” she said, noting she must have hit the rock at a bad angle. “It’s nothing life threatening, but it looks like a proper break. We could do with getting you a splint.”

“We can’t,” Remi tried to sit up, but Ari held her down, indicating for her to rest. “All our medical supplies were on the ship.”

“Ugh, you’re right,” Ari realised. “I’ll need to look for civilisation, see if there’s anyone around who can help us. Oh,” a thought suddenly occurred to her, “I can’t leave you here like this to do that, some of those monsters might have survived the crash.”

“Help me up,” Remi said, pushing away Ari’s hand when she tried to keep her laying down. “Sand an’ stardust, Ari, I’m not useless, I can walk with a little help. Let’s find some supplies, and hopefully someone who can help us find another ship.”

Ari nodded, and put Remi’s arm around her shoulder, then lifted her into a standing position. Remi tried to put her broken foot on the ground, but yelped slightly and picked it up again. The two walked slowly, Ari supporting Remi, past the crashed ship. Ari realised the damage wasn’t as bad as she had first thought, and given a skilled team could probably be repaired, but neither her nor Remi had any engineering training or knowledge at all. She resolved to hire an engineer to keep their next ship in good condition, but reasoned future plans didn’t help now. They arrived at the base of the rock formation the ship had crashed into, so huge and sturdy than an entire spaceship ramming into it didn’t appear to have damaged it in the slightest.

“Stay here,” she instructed Remi, sitting her down on a boulder that had pink moss growing on one side of it. “I’m going to climb the rock and see if I can get a better view.”

Remi nodded, and Ari started to climb. Most of the rock was smooth with few handholds, and Ari wondered if it was natural at all or a monument to something. It wasn’t especially difficult to climb however: in addition to the pink moss, the side of the rock she was climbing was covered with dull rose vines, and a few hard tugs revealed that most of them were strong enough to use as climbing rope. Ari used them to climb up the side of the formation, finding several convenient platforms that made her think more and more that this was an artificial construct, and fuelling her hope of finding some civilisation. She had almost reached the top, but as she clambered up and raised her head above the almost entirely flat platform at the very height of the structure she was blinded by the sudden glare of two suns and lost her footing. She slammed into the side of the rock and involuntarily let go of the vine she was holding, falling several feet and hitting a platform below her, landing embarrassingly hard on her back with a grunt and being very glad that Remi hadn’t seen it.

“Ari?” Remi called up from the bottom, much further below her than Ari had realised until now. Ari thanked her luck for the platform breaking her fall, as she saw she was now quite a ways higher up than the ship had been when they had jumped. The formation was even bigger than she had realised before she had climbed it.

“I’m fine, I just slipped Remi,” Ari shouted back down, and as she started climbing again she heard a reply of “be careful!” from the base of the formation. Prepared for the glare now, she climbed up again, shielding her eyes and she pulled herself up to the top of the formation. She could see for miles around now, and realised that their ship had crashed in the middle of a forest that stretched for a large distance, but not forever. In the direction the suns were she saw a wide river that started where the forest stopped, wide enough that she couldn’t see beyond. Turning to her right, she caught sight of another stone formation the same size and a similar shape to the one she stood atop, which she took as confirmation that they were in fact artificial, and therefore there must be civilisation on this planet. Or at least, she thought pessimistically, there was once. She knew of several planets whose populations had died out, either due to the natural end of the population’s lifespan, or due to the interference of the Praetor’s forces. She noted the planet looked too alive to be a case of the former, and prayed that it wasn’t the latter. She continued to look around, scanning the horizon for any buildings, and as she shifted her feet to look in the opposite direction of the suns, she saw what she was looking for. It was a way away, at least a day’s walk with Remi’s broken ankle, but past the edge of the forest she saw a road leading towards some settlement. Ari couldn’t see how big it was from this distance, but it was a start.

“I see something!” she called down. “I can see buildings!”

Remi shouted something back up but Ari didn’t quite hear what it was as she crouched down to start climbing back down the rock. She grabbed a vine and started to abseil down the rock face, sliding down the vine in bursts so as not to lose her footing and fall. It was a very long way down. She painstakingly made her way halfway down, and when she realised how far it still was to the ground, gave up. She said “Solar Power!” to herself and leapt off the platform, morphing as she did so, her armour appearing around her in midair and disappearing again after she landed right in front of Remi, who instead of looking impressed, rolled her eyes.

“That wasn’t very clever,” she admonished Ari while trying to stifle a smile. “What would have happened if you’d broken your ankle like I did?”

Ari said nothing, just picked Remi up and kissed her quickly on the cheek.

“You’re only doing that because you can’t think of a clever response to what I said!”

Ari ignored her. “I saw buildings in that direction,” she pointed in the direction she had made very sure to remember as she was climbing down. “It’s quite a walk though.”

“The sooner we get started and all that,” Remi said, and they started to walk through the forest. After not very long Ari noticed the suns were starting to go down, bathing the forest on a soft golden glow. Ari couldn’t help but be entranced by how beautiful Remi looked in this light, somehow even more than she always did.

“How are we going to find someone to help us when we get there?” Remi asked after a while, snapping Ari out of her thoughts. “We’ve got no money.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Ari reassured her. “I can work if we really need to, and if we can communicate with some other worlds we might be able to call in a favour or two. I hate to rely on other people, but we are the Solar Rangers.”

Remi looked like she was going to respond, but at that moment they both tripped on something. They managed not to fall over, but Ari looked down to see what they had run into and noticed a broken length of string underneath her foot. She opened her mouth to tell Remi to get away, but too late as they were both swept off their feet by a net that dragged them into the air and left them suspended from a tree.

“Fantastic,” Remi said and Ari could almost taste the sarcasm. However, she didn’t panic, or even worry. Instead, she managed to move her hand to her back pocket and retrieved a small folding knife she had carried for years, and thought for a second about all the similar situations this knife had gotten her out of over the course of her life as she started wordlessly cutting at the net. The knife was very sharp, she always kept it that way, and made very short work of the ropes the net was woven out of. Within less than two minutes the net gave way, quicker than Ari was expecting, and the two fell out onto the ground, Remi reacting fast enough to not land on her already broken ankle, although the fall was clearly not painless. Ari stood, folding her knife with a flourish and putting it back in her pocket, and strode towards Remi to help her up, but saw that Remi was managing just fine on her own by using the net they had just fallen out of to pull herself up.

Ari smiled, and Remi smiled back, then her expression changed to surprise and anger. Before she had a chance to see why, Ari felt herself being grabbed from behind. She reached for the Solarix shard on her hand, as did Remi, but a deep voice from behind her demanded “stop!”

Remi stopped as Ari felt hands grabbing each of her wrists, a third arm around her chest holding her back, and a fourth hand reach into her back pocket and retrieve her knife, unfold it and hold it to her throat.

“Stay where you are and don’t morph, or I cut her throat.”


	3. Chapter 3

Remi’s eyes blazed with barely restrained fury as she removed the Solarix Shard from her glove, slipping it into her pocket and crossing her arms.

“There. I can’t morph now,” her words were meant to be assuring, but her tone indicated that she would attack as soon as she felt she could. “What do you want?”

The man holding Ari hostage didn’t answer immediately.

“You know who we are,” Ari continued. “And you know what we can do.”

“Enough!” he yelled, trying to sound intimidating, but from the quiver in his voice and the shaking in the hands holding her back, Ari could tell he was most likely more scared of them than they were of him, despite the knife he had to her throat. It wouldn’t have been a problem - they had rehearsed for this sort of situation - if not for the two extra hands holding her arms back. If he’d only had just the two, she’d be able to get out of this hold with no trouble and barely any risk. As it was, she was stuck. She could feel his unnerved breathing on the back of her neck, and the sensation made her shudder. He mistook it for struggling and his grip tightened, the knife pressing harder on her neck.

“I know you’re the Solar Rangers,” he continued. “And I also know that the Crimson Raiders will pay me a lot for your heads!” 

“Congratulations,” Ari mocked him. “You got me. How do you intend to get her?”

He clearly hadn’t thought through his plan that far, as he stumbled on the question, trying and failing to come up with an answer. Remi shot Ari an unimpressed look, and Ari realised that she didn’t think antagonising the man holding a knife to her throat with murderous intent was a brilliant plan, but the longer she could keep him talking the longer they had to come up with an escape.

“How did you even know we were coming?” Remi asked.

“I, uh, well, I,” he fumbled his words. “Th-the Crimson Raiders are always watching you! You can’t escape!” he finally finished with false confidence, the obvious lie only coming to him after a few seconds. He stood up a little straighter, dragging Ari up with him, hoping his bluster would fool them.

“So, you didn’t know we were coming, the net was completely unrelated, and you got lucky,” Remi stated, and he deflated, his confidence lost as he realised how utterly he had failed to intimidate them.

“I...I…” he tried. “That’s enough! Shut up or I kill her! I’ll do it!” he shouted, giving up on trying to match them and falling back on threats.

Remi stepped back, but said nothing, instead shooting a brief glance that Ari thought could have been more subtle to the right of her captor. He started, and shot his own panicked look behind him in that direction. As he did, Ari heard a metallic smack from her right as something big and heavy hit him in the now exposed back of his head and Ari felt all four hands restraining her go limp. She ripped her hands free from his grasp and retrieved her knife from his fingers as her captor, having fallen for the misdirection, fell to the ground. Ari turned and examined him. His four arms were splayed out, and his legs were at odd angles having simply fallen out from under him, but his face that was too youthful for his deep and angry voice was surprisingly calm, and Ari saw his chest rise and fall with his slow breaths. He wasn’t dead, only unconscious. She almost expected to be disappointed, but found she didn’t care. 

She turned to thank whoever had rescued her, who was still standing beside her, but had only turned halfway around when she was interrupted by Remi almost leaping into her, wrapping her arms around her and almost knocking the two of them to the floor. Ari hugged her back, just as glad to be alive and not endangered anymore. Then she felt Remi shift her weight, and realised that in the excitement, they’d both forgotten about her broken ankle, and berated herself again. Before she had a chance to bring it up though, it was Remi’s turn to chide her.

“Breeze an’ burning, why did you make fun of him, you dumb fool?” she asked, half laughing with relief and mirth and half seriously telling her off, confirming Ari’s suspicion that her previous unimpressed glare was definitely about that.

“I wanted to keep him distracted,” she defended herself. “It worked, didn’t it? Oh, speaking of which.”

Ari kissed Remi on the cheek quickly - she really couldn’t resist right now - and turned her head towards her saviour, seeing a surprisingly short human, a little younger than she and Remi were, with two arms, between them holding a heavy looking metal wrench, looking in the direction but down at their feet.

“Thank you,” Ari said. “You just saved my life.”

They brushed back the red hair covering their left eye, still not meeting her gaze. “Is it bad that I’ve kinda always wanted to do that?”

“Save a life, or hit someone over the head with a wrench?” Remi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“...both,” they admitted.

“Well, you did both today and you were amazing,” Ari said and the new figure smiled, their entire face lighting up. They finally made eye contact with Ari, their expression starstruck. “Thanks. How did you know we were here?”

“Oh, I saw your ship go down over there,” they pointed in the direction of the ship. “I drove over to see if I could find you, but by the time I got there you’d already left. I was coming back when I heard yelling, and saw that guy threatening you. So I hit him.”

“Well, thank you,” Remi said again. “Are you from the town? We were heading in that direction, see if we could find some medical supplies for my ankle. And a new ship,” she added.

“Well, it’s more of a pit stop than a town,” they admitted. “But yeah, we’ve got a doctor, I’ll give you a ride.”

“Thank you,” Ari said, taken aback by the complete stranger’s kindness.

“And you don’t need a new ship,” they continued. “I saw your ship, I can fix it.”

“I...appreciate the offer, but it’s wrecked,” Remi told them.

“No way, it’s totally fixable,” the stranger said, their speech getting faster. “I’ve seen that kind of ship before, the nose is designed to crumple and take any impact, you can just take it straight off and replace it next time you find a new one, the rest of the ship will be fine, and the landing gear is made to take crash landings, so yeah you’ll need a few things straightened out and we’ll need to take the front off and any internal damage will need repairing but we can fix it in like two days, it’s fine.” They stopped to take a breath and were about to start again, but stopped when they saw Ari and Remi’s dazzled expressions. They rubbed the back of their neck nervously. “I, uh, I like spaceships, a lot. But I work in a garage, and we can fix your ship up.”

“Wow,” Remi said. “Thank you, but we haven’t got any money on us, we can’t pay for it.”

The stranger shook their head. “No way, you’re the Solar Rangers, we’ll do it for free. Half the guys there would probably thank you for letting us. My buggy’s over here, I can take you there?”

“Sure, thanks,” Ari found herself saying again, not entirely sure how to respond. Very quickly this stranger had suddenly offered a solution to all the problems that seemed insurmountable just a few minutes ago, and she wasn’t used to such wanton kindness. “We never caught your name though?”

“Oh, right, my name,” they answered. “I’m Veran. Nice to meet ya!”

As Veran drove them back to their garage, the buggy hovering almost silently a few feet above the soil of the forest as Veran expertly weaved between the trees, they and Remi sat in the front, discussing the ship. Ari wasn’t really listening - she caught some of the discussion about hyperaccelerators in the background, but just barely - being too caught up in her own thoughts. She found herself thinking again back to the town they had saved, and how Veran now, based solely on Ari and Remi’s reputations, had offered them so much.

They arrived at the settlement soon after, Veran’s skilful driving making the day-long walk pass in just a few minutes. They were right, it was little more than a pit stop, dominated by the garage Veran had mentioned, but that was all they needed. Ari saw a few houses and a couple of other services and food stores on the drive in, but there couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred people living here at most. As Veran drove them in, a group welcomed them back, and Ari reasoned a small community like this would easily lead to most everyone knowing each other. She wondered how long this place had kept going, seemingly so remote, and yet they didn’t seem to need any connection to the world at large, assuming there was a world at large to be connected to.

As the inhabitants of the stop came to greet Veran, many of them saw their guests, and their faces also turned somewhat awestruck. It seemed to Ari that at least a few people knew them by sight as the, she now realised, famous Solar Rangers, and just about everyone else knew them by reputation. They found themselves inundated with offers of food and places to stay, and while Ari was distinctly uncomfortable with the attention and had no idea how to respond to any of it, Remi was much more adept at the social side of being an intergalactic renowned superhero. Once again Ari found herself in awe of how Remi handled every situation she was faced with. She stayed at Remi’s side as much as possible.

“I’m so lucky to be your girlfriend,” she purred into her ear during a slightly more quiet moment, and Remi blushed.

“What brought this on?”

“You’re just amazing at this,” Ari gushed. “I have no idea how to react to any of this, but you do it as easily as anything.”

“I ran a bar for years, you know that,” Remi explained. “You don’t serve regular customers plenty of alcohol for a long time without figuring out how to deal with people being excessively thankful for it at times.”

“And yet I’ve never seen you drunk,” Ari teased.

“And as long I want to continue being your girlfriend you won’t,” Remi shot back, but with a wink that told Ari she wasn’t entirely serious. “Besides, I haven’t seen you drunk either.”

“I’ve never really had alcohol,” Ari admitted. “I had to stay alert and on my toes all the time.”

“Oh, yeah, the horrific trauma,” Remi remembered. “Whoops.”

They were both quiet for a moment, and Ari worried that she had killed the mood, but Remi soon rescued it.

“Well, that just means you’ll be a lightweight,” she whispered in a sultry, yet mischievous tone. “I can’t wait.” She punctuated her suggestion with a wiggle of her eyebrows, a gesture that made Ari giggle despite herself.

“You’re a bad influence.”

“Oh, you love it.”

“I do,” Ari agreed. “I love you.”

Remi smiled warmly, and suddenly the universe was that much brighter. “I love you too.”

True to Veran’s word, there was a doctor who ran a basic medical practise, but was clearly highly skilled, giving Remi a splint for her ankle and advising her not to put pressure on it, assuring her it would have healed by the time the ship was fixed. They slept in a spare house that night - the occupants had left to go somewhere some time ago and nobody had moved into it in their absence - and the next day began to start work on their ship. As Veran had said, the owners and workers of the spaceship garage demanded no payment, and several seemed in awe that they were allowed to work on the Solar Rangers’ ship to start with. The nose of the ship was, as Veran had explained, completely removable, and after doing so they and their associates moved inside the ship to start repairing the systems.

On the second day, Veran drove Ari and Remi out to the ship, which was now capable of starting, and they flew it back to the garage, allowing the repairs to be made without the necessity of driving out to the rock feature it had crashed into.

“Veran,” she got their attention one day. “That rock that the ship crashed into.”

“Oh, the Monument,” they confirmed. “What about it?”

“I climbed it to see where we should go to find help-”

“Wait, you actually climbed it? Like, to the top?” Veran interrupted.

“Yes, I did,” Ari confirmed. “Should...I not have? If it’s a cultural thing, I apologise-”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing bad,” Veran quickly reassured her. “It’s just, well, a couple years back I wanted to climb that one, just to see what it was like, but I only got about a third of the way up. How was the view?”

“That’s what I wanted to ask about, actually,” Ari admitted. “When I was at the top, I saw another one just like it on the horizon. Almost exactly the same shape and size, and I was wondering if there are more of them, and if they mean anything?”

“I don’t know, honestly,” Veran looked a little downcast, and Ari suspected they were disappointed at being unable to answer the question. “We call them the Monuments, and we know that there are a lot of them, but we don’t really know anything else about them here.”

“Okay,” Ari said, trying hard to make sure Veran knew she wasn’t disappointed. It was just a mild curiosity after all, and she didn’t want Veran to be hard on themself about it. “What about anyone else? Anyone in a city or something near here that might know?”

“There isn’t anyone else,” Veran answered. “I don’t know if anyone else lives on this planet, but this place is the only populated area around. It’s where I was born, where all of us were born, and just about nobody leaves. Sometimes people leave, go out into the forest or off planet, but as far as I’ve been around nobody’s ever done that and come back. The road that leads into town just sort of stops after a while in both directions.”

“Nobody else around?” Ari asked, incredulous. She couldn’t imagine living in such a small community her entire life. “How do you all know so much about spaceships? How to repair them?”

“If there’s anything we have far too much of here, it’s books and it’s scrap,” Veran answered. “Most of us here work at the garage because we have so many books about mechanics and engineering in the library, and they’ve been there for ages. The ones I read are probably the third set of copies of them or something. We live on food we harvest or that we find or hunt out in the forest, and we build machines to make it easier. Like my buggy, I built that myself,” they boasted, standing a little straighter.

“You’ve never known anything but this place?”

“Nope, never,” Veran said, then sighed, wistful, glancing towards the sky, and in that moment Ari almost felt what it must have been like, longing to travel but stuck in one place forever. “I’d love to though, one day. See the stars.”

“Why don’t you do it?” came Remi’s voice as she approached them, lacking either a splint or a limp. Her ankle had fully healed, Ari assumed, and if it was still painful, she knew Remi wouldn’t bring it up.

“I don’t know how,” Veran sighed again, but sadly this time. “I don’t know how I’ll ever leave here.”

“Come with us,” Ari suggested, and Veran snorted, suppressing a mirthless laugh. Their face turned from disbelief to wonder as they looked at Ari and realised she was serious. Ari fired a quick wink at Remi.

“You...mean it?” they asked, their expression growing brighter by the second.

“Uh, yeah, we found our ship pretty beaten up, and the crash made it worse,” Remi reasoned, shooting a glance back at Ari. “We could do with an engineer, full time.”

“We could,” Ari agreed, nodding imperceptibly to Remi and turning back to Veran. “If you want it, there’s a room for you on our ship.”

“...yes. Yes. Yes!” Veran agreed, unable to contain themself and jumping in joy, a sight that made Remi break into a grin and made Ari herself smile. “Thank you, thank you thank you thank you so much I promise I’ll work super hard, thank you Mrs. Remi, Mrs. Ellarien!”

“Stone and shadow, Veran, what’s with all the formals?” Remi waved off the title. “Come on, it’s just Remi.”

“Thank you so much Remi!” Veran still couldn’t keep still from excitement. “And thank you too Ellarien.”

“Veran, please, call me Ari,” she said, and Remi’s grin grew larger, making Ari smile bigger as well. Remi knew how rare it was for her to trust someone enough to let them call her Ari. She knew how much this meant.

“I’ve gotta go tell everyone!” Veran shouted back in glee as they ran towards the other engineers, yelling to nobody in particular “I’m going to see the stars! I’m going to see the stars!”

“Ari,” Remi started. “An mechanic would be a great asset, but we could probably make do without one.”

“Do you not want Veran to come with us?” Ari asked, meaning to sound genuine, and hating how accusatory she sounded. “Sorry, that wasn’t meant to-”

“No no, I got you,” Remi reassured. “And I do. I just want to know what that was about.”

“I just...wanted to give them every opportunity to agree,” Ari said. “They don’t seem to have that much confidence, and-”

“And you didn’t want them to turn it down,” Remi finished. “You know, underneath all that bluster there’s a real warm heart beatin’ in there.”

Ari rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Besides, I don’t know what it is, but something tells me that we need Veran on the ship.”

“Something?” Remi questioned. “...is it just paranoia? Or is it, you know...” she trailed off.

Ari thought it over. “Maybe,” she answered eventually. “It might be. But I definitely think we should keep an eye on them. Just in case.”

The rest of the repairs were finished within two days, during which time Veran appeared to have told everyone about the offer. Finally, after Veran had moved all of the belongings they’d decided to take onto the ship, and Ari and Remi had expressed a thousand thanks and an endless supply of gratitude, the three of them lifted off in their ship, which sailed off the ground as if it were brand new from the shipyard that had built it, and accompanied by waves of farewell and good luck, left the orbit of the planet and ascended into the universe.


	4. Chapter 4

“I need a shower!” Remi complained as she and Ari walked into the ship. Ari tried not to laugh, but found herself failing after catching another glimpse at Remi’s unimpressed expression. Her frown and flattened ears made her look like a pouting cat.

“And you can stop that!” she pointed at Ari, who took a few seconds to compose herself. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t wearing my jacket, it would have been ruined!”

“Look, I said I was sorry,” Ari said between laughs. She knew Remi wasn’t genuinely angry: it wasn’t a serious situation, and Remi didn’t yell when she was angry. She grew cold and steely, and that was more terrifying than any raised voice. “I thought you were still in armour.”

“Well you didn’t exactly check, did you?” came the reply.

“How’d it go?” came a voice from the corridor, and before either had a chance to answer, Veran appeared in front of them, running towards them before suddenly changing direction and backing away slightly from Remi. “Oh. Uh, Remi, why are you...um...sticky?”

“Because Miss Dramatic over here-” she fired another glare at Ari, who made a somewhat halfhearted attempt to act contrite “-didn’t look where she was leaping!”

Veran’s confused expression indicated they had no idea what Remi was talking about.

“Okay, so you know how the rock...creature...things…” Ari trailed off. “We really need to think of a better name for those,” she mused.

“How about Boulders?” Veran jumped in, their eyes widening slightly as they realised they had done so entirely too quickly to not be suspicious. “Oh, you know, we could find something else,” they played to play it off, entirely unsuccessfully.

“How long did you spend thinking about this?” Ari asked.

“...not long,” Veran lied.

“In any case, Boulders, sounds good. Remi?” Ari asked for input. Remi steadfastly refused to stop scowling and present an opinion, but the direction of her scowl indicated that her disgust was directed entirely towards Ari. “Okay, Boulders then.” She nodded. Remi continued to glower, but nodded very slightly to indicate her approval. Ari decided not to question it.

“So, you were saying?” Veran gestured for Ari to continue.

“So, the water we detected them under wasn’t exactly, uh, water,” Ari explained.

“...do I want to know what it was?” Veran asked apprehensively.

“It was-”

“Slime!” Remi complained.

“-a little more...um, yes, slimy than we’re used to water being.”

“Right,” Veran smiled. “I had assumed the armour was waterproof, but-”

“It is,” Remi growled.

Ari sighed. “So, after we were done, Remi jumped out of the water, and apparently demorphed. Which I didn’t know. At which point-”

“At. Which. Point.” Remi interrupted, punctuating each word with a poke to Ari’s arm. “This one leapt out and sprayed it everywhere!”

“...I may have splashed a little when I jumped out,” Ari admitted.

“Everywhere,” Remi repeated.

Veran tried to push down a smirk, and spectacularly failed, then burst into full laughter at the sight of a venomous glance from Remi. At Veran’s laughter, Ari started to laugh louder as well, and even Remi almost failed to suppress a smile at the sight.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Veran tried to say through laughter. Remi planted another, even bigger scowl on her face.

“I need a shower,” she repeated, walking off in the appropriate direction.

“See you in three hours, then,” Ari quipped, earning yet another poisonous look from Remi.

Eventually Ari and Veran managed to force themselves to stop laughing, but Ari thought they needed it. It wasn’t an easy job, and sometimes they just needed to have a good laugh with each other. 

“She’ll be a while,” she said. “Remi likes long showers.”

“Can you blame her?” Veran asked.

“Not really.”

Ari and Veran left the cargo bay in different directions, Veran towards the engine room, while Ari walked up to the bridge and set the controls to take off, leaving the planet’s atmosphere and setting off into the void of space on no particular course. She watched the universe go by through the viewscreen and pondered the state of the universe. Every day now she saw another star or moon or celestial body that hadn’t existed before what had happened on the Splintered Star. The universe was growing every day.

The ship rumbled slightly, and Ari checked to see if they had hit something in space. Nothing. Then she heard a faint “sorry!” that echoed from the direction of the engine room. She walked briskly down the hallway there and found Veran hanging upside down from a balcony, red hair flowing down, their feet wrapped behind the railings, reattaching a cable to the main engine. They secured it firmly in place, tightening the connection using their favourite wrench. They sighed, wiped some sweat from their brow, then spotted Ari.

“Oh, hey Ari.”

With a grunt, they pulled their feet from behind the railings and began to fall, but before Ari could even try to catch them, they flipped over in midair and landed surprisingly gracefully on their feet. They tried to brush the hair out of their eyes, but it kept falling back into their view. Ari dug through one of her pockets and retrieved a hair tie.

“Here.”

“Hmm? Oh, thank you!” Veran tied their hair in a ponytail behind their head. “Sorry about that, cable came undone in takeoff. All fixed now.”

“What would we do without you?” Ari marvelled.

“Find another mechanic, I’m sure,” Veran brushed off the compliment. Ari took the opportunity to really look around the engine room for the first time since Veran had joined the crew a couple of weeks ago. They had really made it a space for themself. The sparse, bland walls were now covered in tools they had hung up for easy access, there were packets around for various snacks Ari did not remember having in the ship’s inventory, and in one of the corners was a large soft chair and table with a stack of old looking books.

A thought suddenly occurred to her.

“Veran, have you actually left the ship since you came aboard?”

Veran hesitated. “Not really, but there aren’t really many places to go, right? I mean, where else would I want to go?”

“We’ve been to plenty of places you could go, even just to go outside for a bit.”

“I know, but,” Veran looked a little distant. “I’m not...always that good with new people.”

Ari opened her mouth to reply, but stopped. She knew that feeling all too well, and decided to drop the subject. 

“Those books,” she asked finally. “You brought those from your old home, didn’t you?”

“I did, yes,” Veran responded, somewhat wistful. They didn’t say anything for a while, and Ari was tempted to turn and leave, not knowing how to start a conversation, when Veran asked “do you ever miss home? Your home, I mean?”

“I didn’t really have a home,” Ari admitted. “Are you missing yours? I know that leaving home can be difficult.”

Veran ignored the question. “You didn’t have a home? Where did you grow up?”

Ari took a breath, unsure as to whether or not to get into this conversation, but relented. Veran was part of the crew. If anyone was enough of a friend to trust, it was them.

“The Solarix came to me when I was very young,” she explained. “And since then there was always someone after me. I spent most of my years running from, well, just about everyone. I never stayed anywhere long enough to call it home.”

“How did it come to you?” Veran asked. “And what about Remi?”

“It was chance, honestly,” Ari continued. “I wasn’t chosen for any reason. I wasn’t chosen at all. I just happened to be there when it needed a new caretaker. So that was my role for the next however long.” She smiled to herself. “After a while though, there was Remi. I don’t even remember how we met. She’s just been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I spent most of my life on the run, but she was always there for me to go back to, no matter what happened.”

“If I may,” Veran said. “When did you two, you know, get together?”

“I didn’t let myself get close to her for the longest time, but after a while…” Ari found herself caught up in memories again. “I just couldn’t not, you know? She’s just...she’s so amazing.”

“Sorry, can I ask,” Veran changed the subject. “What is the Solarix? Because I’ve heard you and Remi talk about your Solarix Shards, which I gathered are what let you morph, but what actually are they shards of?”

Ari took a deep breath, and gestured for Veran to sit down. It was a long story to tell. She sat herself on the floor.

“Every universe is connected by a...force, a universal energy field that we call the Morphing Grid, or just the Grid,” she explained. “It’s what we tap into to form our armour. But for a long time, this universe was cut off from the Grid. The Solarix was the only remnant of that power left. It came to me as a child and I used it, protected it, but I could never control it, and I was always hunted by the Crimson Raiders and their leader.”

“The Praetor,” Veran nodded. “I’ve heard you talk about him.”

“He was the one who cut this universe off from the Grid,” Ari continued. “There was a planet, the Splintered Star, that held an energy source that could be impossibly dangerous, so he cut the universe off from every other universe, and stayed behind to protect that world. But being disconnected from the Grid, it caused this universe to decay. Start to die. And the Praetor went mad, thought the people of the universe were unworthy of his sacrifice. So he decided to kill them all, and gathered a legion of followers who he made believe the same.”

“That’s why they do what they do,” Veran realised.

“They still think everything needs to die and go somewhere...better,” Ari nodded.

“So…” Veran said.

“The Solarix was the last fragment of the Grid left in the universe,” Ari kept going. “The only thing that could reconnect it to the Grid. Save everything. So we went to the Splintered Star to do that.”

“We?” Veran asked. “You and Remi?”

“Yes,” Ari nodded. “But she wasn’t a Solar Ranger yet. It was us, and...others. Other Rangers, from a different universe who ended up here by...it was complicated.” She stopped and leaned back against the wall. She closed her eyes and their faces flashed across her vision as she realised just how long it had been since she had seen them. Kim. Andros. Mike. Tanya. Heckyl. Cam. Everyone else they had come to this universe with. She knew she’d never see them again, knew that went they left, but she couldn’t help but miss them, and think fondly back on the times they’d shared together. How much they’d helped her. Let her trust someone again.

She shook her head back to reality. “Anyway, we managed to get there, but the Praetor followed us. Almost killed me. We could barely fight back.”

“So what did you do?”

“I shattered the Solarix,” Ari said. “I broke it into seven pieces and gave one each to the other Rangers, and we fought off the Praetor. Killed him, and used the Solarix to restore the universe back to the Grid. And now, well, the universe isn’t dying anymore.”

“And the others?” Veran inquired. “What happened to them?”

“They went back,” Ari explained. “They went back to their own universe. I gave one of the Solarix Shards to Remi and she became a Solar Ranger. And we decided to keep protecting the universe. And here we are.”

“So there are five Shards left?” Veran asked.

“Indeed there are,” Ari nodded. “And when we find people to use them, we’ll have a whole team again. We’ve even got a ship to get around in, and a brilliant mechanic to keep us afloat,” she said, by way of congratulations. Veran didn’t seem to take it as a compliment, though, smiling mirthlessly, and though Ari didn’t know what she had said that was wrong, she regretted saying it. She turned to leave as Veran sank further into their chair and picked up one of their books, opening it halfway through.

Ari walked up to her and Remi’s bedroom, hoping to get some rest after the events of the day. She opened the door and stepped in, turning on the light to find Remi wearing nothing but a towel, clean and free of slime now but not dry from her shower. Ari almost choked at the sight. Nothing ever prepared her for how amazing Remi looked.

“Hi,” she got out eventually. “Sorry about the...slime thing.”

Remi laughed and let her towel drop. “You’re forgiven.”

Some time later, the two lay in bed, Remi resting her head on Ari’s chest as Ari slowly stroked her hair. They lay in silence for a while, taking the opportunity to simply enjoy each other’s quiet company and calmly be together. After some time, Remi spoke up.

“I felt the ship rumble a while ago,” she said. “Did we hit something?”

“No,” Ari reassured her. “Just something with the engine. Veran fixed it.”

“I’m so glad they agreed to come with us,” Remi said. “They’re so good with the engine.”

“Yeah,” Ari agreed, only partially paying attention and thinking back to their previous conversation.

Remi turned over and shifted her head to look at Ari. “What are you thinking?”

“Veran hasn’t left the ship since they came on board,” she explained. “Maybe we should try to encourage them to get out more? Get them to spend some time off the ship.”

“Maybe,” Remi replied, “we should not treat Veran like a child.”

“A child?” Ari asked. “Am I treating them like that?”

“A little bit, yeah,” she said. “I know you want to protect everyone Ari, and it’s sweet and very noble and part of why I fell in love with you, but there’s such a thing as taking it too far.”

“Part of why?” Ari asked slyly. “What else made you fall in love with me?”

“Your pretty face was one thing,” Remi winked. “Though your smart mouth wasn’t.”

“You like it really,” Ari teased, and Remi laughed again, turning back over and resting her head back on Ari’s chest. Ari lay back and started slowly stroking her hair again. She thought about how much she loved this, how much she hadn’t had a chance to just be quietly intimate with Remi when she was being hunted by the Praetor. She really hadn’t appreciated it enough on the few chances she had had.

“You’re a good person Ari, you really are,” Remi interrupted Ari’s reminiscence. “But sometimes you’re just too good for your own good.”

Ari wanted to shoot off a quick and witty response, but a noise reverberated around the room as the ship’s intercom came to life and Veran’s voice sounded out across the room.

“Ari, Remi, you may want to look at this. I’ve picked up a distress signal, and I can’t hear much of it, but it doesn’t sound like it’s Boulders. I’m sending the coordinates to the bridge.”

Ari and Remi looked at each other, a smile forming on both of their lips.

“This was nice.”

“It was, we don’t get a chance to do that often enough.”

“Time to go to work.”

They climbed out of their tangle and threw on the closest clothes they could find and ran through the opening door, down the hall in the direction of the bridge.


	5. Chapter 5

Remi pulled back on the lever in front of her, the noise of the hyperaccelerators quieting slightly as the ship came out of lightspeed, the asteroid dead ahead of them in the viewscreen. Ari checked the screen adorning the console in front of her, being thankful that the huge inconvenient crack that had obscured its readings since they found the ship had been fixed back on Veran’s planet.

“Is this the right one?” Remi asked.

“Yeah, this is it,” Ari confirmed, the screen in front of her proving it. “Kozal Outpost.”

As they got closer to the asteroid, speeding as fast as they could to get there but avoiding overshooting the landing, objects on the asteroid came into view. It wasn’t very big, but Ari saw a few buildings on the surface, and a few spaceships around the asteroid, several centred around a large building near the centre of the surface. Another spaceship garage, Ari assumed.

“Everything’s good with the engine!” came a voice from the corridor, and Ari turned to see Veran running into the room, red hair tied back so as not to obstruct their vision. They took one look at the asteroid.

“Oh,” they said. “It looks just like home.”

“This is where the distress signal came from,” Remi said, and Veran’s expression of nostalgia turned to one of vicarious anger.

Remi brought the ship in closer, and as they edged closer to the asteroid, the trouble necessitating the signal made itself clear as the colours and markings on most of the ships surrounding the asteroid became visible. Veran gasped involuntarily, and Ari felt a pit open in her stomach as her curiosity and worry were replaced with quiet rage. Remi growled at the screen.

“Crimson Raiders.”

“I was hoping we’d seen the last of them,” Ari said darkly. She remembered the conflicts she’d had with them in the past. The times she had had to run from them growing up. The battles she had fought against them, the power of the Solarix barely keeping her alive. The planets and civilisations they’d remorselessly destroyed, the genocides they had committed on the nihilistic whim of the Praetor. Ari had never enjoyed violence, never liked the idea of taking lives and disliked the practice even more. But she and Remi had realised a long time ago that mercy achieved nothing with Crimson Raiders. By joining the faction they had announced their intention to kill and destroy anything in their way for no reason beyond the sake of killing. So she and Remi had promised themselves that when it came to Crimson Raiders, there was no holding back.

“We killed their leader,” Remi replied. “But it seems they can’t take the blasted hint that we didn’t want them around.”

“The people down there…” Veran trailed off, and Ari could see from their face they were imagining their own home in the same situation. It couldn’t have been a pleasant thought.

Ari made some quick calculations in her head. “Remi, can you set us down near the edge? We don’t want to get surrounded, we’ve had enough people trying to wreck our ship.”

“Can’t we do a strafing run?” Veran asked, sounding excited to use the ship’s cannons. “Blast them away without having to land?”

Ari shook her head. “We don’t have time to calibrate the lasers.” 

“At how small the asteroid is we’d more than likely tear the whole place apart,” Remi confirmed, sounding somewhat contrite at having to crush Veran’s hopes.

“If we’d had more time we’d be able to get it right,” Ari said. “But we’d need more than ten minutes to do that.”

Veran looked down. “Sorry,” they said. “If I’d picked up the signal earlier-”

“Hey, come on, none of that,” Remi left the console and put her hands on Veran’s shoulders reassuringly. “For all we know you picked up the signal the second it was sent.”

“You did good Veran,” Ari agreed.

Veran pulled their head back up as Remi patted them on the back and walked back to the console. Veran smiled to themself and Ari felt a tinge of pride well up in her.

Remi danced across the console, pulling levers and pressing switches. Veran had told them that this model of ship was meant to be flown by three pilots at once, yet Remi was able to do it herself with only occasional assistance from Ari. Ari considered herself a somewhat capable pilot, but Remi was a savant, and Ari doubted there was a machine in the galaxy Remi couldn’t fly. The ship barely rattled when she entered the asteroid’s small gravitational field, and she set them down near the edge of the asteroid, just far enough in to not fall off, but impossible to get behind. She and Ari left their consoles and made for the exit to the corridor leading to the bay.

“Stay here,” Ari instructed Veran, and while she expected them to simply nod and do as instructed, as they did every time Ari and Remi left the ship, this time they argued back.

“I can’t sit here,” Veran said. “Those people need help, I want to do something.”

“No,” Ari said firmly. This was a bad time for this discussion, they needed to hurry. “You’d just be putting yourself in danger. We’ll take care of this.”

“I want to help,” Veran insisted. “I want to fight!”

“Veran,” Remi said, somewhat diplomatically but just as firm as Ari. “We can have this conversation later, but this is too big for you and we need to go. Stay here, okay?”

“...okay,” they eventually replied, looking dejectedly down at the floor. Ari felt a knot of guilt rising, but pushed it back down. They could deal with this later. Right now, people needed help. They needed the Solar Rangers. She looked over to her partner.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

They stood side by side as they brought the palms of their right hands to the shards of the Solarix held on the backs of their respective left hands.

“Solar Power!”

Light swirled around them, their armoured materialising on their bodies. Ari closed her eyes as light engulfed her vision, and opened them again, looking through her visor to see Veran grinning at the sight.

“Never gets old,” they said, genuine excitement pushing through their sadness. “Go kick some ass.”

Ari nodded and heard Remi chuckle over the helmet’s radio as they turned and ran down the corridor, sprinting through the bay and leaping out of the doors before they were even halfway open, soaring much farther than they were anticipating with a “whoa!” from Remi as they adjusted to the lower gravity. However, as they ran, Ari felt herself become heavier as the force of gravity increased, and she realised that the gravity was artificial. 

“Look up,” Remi said, and Ari obeyed, seeing a dark but unmistakably blue sky. “The atmosphere is artificial, just like the gravity.”

“A machine that can create both is hardly cheap,” Ari reasoned. “It must be what the Crimson Raiders are after. They could take it apart to use it for almost anything.”

“They can’t!” came Veran’s voice over the radio, speaking from the ship. “Without gravity or an atmosphere everyone on this whole asteroid would die.”

“Yeah, well the Crimson Raiders ain’t got much of a reputation for caring about others,” Remi said darkly.

After running for only a few seconds Ari saw a small group of various species in the distinctive garb of the Crimson Raiders, one of whom was holding someone else in a brown robe on her knees with a sword to her throat. He was talking, threatening her most likely, but before she could hear what he was saying he noticed them running towards him and recoiled, dropping his hostage who backed up and scurried away in a panic. The Raider, his long coat and serrated sword indicating his position as a captain of sorts, stepped back into a fighting stance and was soon surrounded by the other Raiders, all brandishing weapons at them.

The Solar Rangers stopped and stepped into their own fighting stances, summoning their weapons in quick flashes of light.

“Crimson Raiders,” Remi repeated into her helmet so only Ari could hear over the speaker.

“Still as disgusting as ever,” Ari replied.

They stood for a few seconds, waiting for the Raiders to make the first move, none of them daring to. Ari spun her chakram around her finger, the quickest and most subtle of taunts, but it worked, and one Raider on the edge of the pack started to run towards them, waving his weapon around his head and screaming maniacally. Remi shrugged, lightly threw her weapon into the air, caught it in a reversed grip, took aim, and threw it with enough force that the spear flew straight through the attacker, who stumbled and fell. Remi’s spear appeared in her grip again as she lazily twirled it in her hands, before turning to the rest of the pack and taunting “anyone else?”.

The Crimson Raiders charged, and the Solar Rangers charged in return. Ari leapt into the air and kicked the first enemy she could see square in the chest, sending him sprawling back into his compatriots and knocking them all down. She landed in front of them, but was forced to step backwards by a multitude of blades swung at her head, jumping back into a handstand and springing back onto her feet to create some distance between them. Rushing in had been a bad idea, she reasoned, but she felt confident she and Remi could defeat this rabble. Nothing had kept them down yet.

She dropped into a crouch and spun, supporting herself with one leg and extending the other out, sweeping three attackers off their feet. She stood up, swiping her weapon up as she did, and caught one across the chest as he fell, the strength of the blow knocking him back into the air and down onto his back where he stayed. She jumped back again, more assailants arriving. One swung another sword at her, which she dodged, caught the blade in her chakram in the space between the grip and the blade, and pulled, twisting the weapon out of her opponent’s hand and catching it with her own left hand, using it to parry another sword. She kicked out at her new foe and threw her chakram at him, the weapon becoming lodged in his torso. 

She switched her appropriated sword into her right hand and parried blow after blow from the foe she had taken it from, who had in the meantime retrieved the sword from the one she had killed. As she found her footing and tried to gain the upper hand, however, the other two she had knocked to the ground had stood up and were now advancing on her. She tried to kick her opponent’s foot out from under him, but he kept his balance, giving her only enough time to summon her weapon back to her grip before all three were upon her. The opponent on the left made a wrong step and created a small space between him and his ally, enough space for Ari to take a risk and duck, dodging a swing at her head but taking a glancing blow to her arm. Her armour protected her from the damage, but the sting still reached her. She dashed through the space, leaving the sword embedded in her middle opponent’s leg and slashing the other leg she could reach. Two of her foes fell to their knees and she stood, focusing her attention on the final standing opponent. 

Splitting her chakram in two, she set upon him, a whirling storm of blades, and he hurried to parry every slash until one he just couldn’t get to in time. Ari cut deep into his arm and his sword dropped to the ground, but before he could react Ari leaped forward, slashing with both blades at once and cutting him down. One of her downed opponents tried to stand, but Ari hit him with a spinning kick and he fell again. She approached her last opponent, raised her leg up above her own head and brought her heel down into the back of his head, the impact knocking him to the ground.

Ari realised she was breathing too quickly, and slowed herself down, looking to where Remi was fighting four foes at once with three more ready to join the fray against her. She also saw two more opponents coming up behind her, and ran to join her, but felt her ankle being grabbed from behind. She pulled her foot free of the opponent and kicked his head again, knocking him unconscious, but as she looked up she saw a group of at least ten warriors running towards her at full speed from the direction of one of the buildings. She suddenly realised, far too late, that the group they had engaged was only half of the Raiders’ force on the asteroid, and the rest were now coming. They were hopelessly outnumbered.

“Remi, there’s more coming, we need to retreat!” she said over the radio, cursing herself for not coming up with a plan.

“Dirt an’ damnation, Ari, I can’t get a break!” came the reply, and Ari looked to see Remi locked in combat with no less than seven assailants, her spear on the ground a few feet from where it had been knocked from her grasp, and barely able to avoid the deadly weapons coming at her from all directions. Ari wanted to run over and help, more than anything, but before she had a chance she was set upon by the newly arriving group, and almost immediately found herself in an identical scenario. 

She slashed wildly with her blades, trying to keep any of her opponents away, but no sooner had she discouraged one attack, another came at her from another direction, and within seconds she was surrounded, desperately dodging and parrying attacks, and it was all she could do just to defend herself, much less fight back. A badly timed swing resulted in one of her blades being knocked from her grip, and the other soon followed suit as she was overwhelmed by the numbers. Every kick she made to knock back an opponent was only a temporary measure as she had to block and weave past a storm of swords and axes and fists, and while she managed plenty of good hits, rendering her opponents out of the combat, they were immediately replaced. 

She could no longer see Remi, but she heard her grunts and battle cries over her speakers growing more frantic and filled with panic, until Ari moved just slightly too slowly to avoid a sweeping foot and lost her balance, a fist impacting the side of her head and stunning her. She wildly swung a fist in an attempt to gain some space, but her arm was caught and twisted hard behind her back, making her cry out in pain.

“Ari!” she heard Remi respond to the cry, but it was swiftly followed by her own cry of pain, as Ari looked over to her and saw that she too had been defeated. Ari was dragged over to the captain of the group and forced to her knees in front of him, Remi thrown to the ground just beside her. Their captors unclasped their helmets and ripped them off of their heads.

“Remi, I-” Ari started, but she was cut off by mocking, raucous laughter from the captain.

“The mighty Solar Rangers, brought down by little old us,” he sneered at them. “Not so tough now, are you!” he shouted, and slapped Remi across the face. Ari roared and struggled against her captors, but a smack with the flat side of a sword stopped her. She felt blood running down the side of her head as she stared back in defeated rage.

Remi said nothing. The captain leaned down to continue taunting her, but Remi spat in his face and he recoiled. He kicked her stomach and she doubled over, and he followed up by another savage kick to her head. Ari saw Remi bite her lip to keep from screaming, only staying up because she was being held there. Ari felt her stomach twist as her temper rose.

“I’ll kill you,” she hissed at the captain. “I’ll tear you apart for that.”

The captain laughed and slapped Remi again, clearly enjoying himself and trying to get a rise from Ari. “You will? Go on then, kill me! I wonder how you’ll do it when I’ve got you beaten and at my feet!” he roared with laughter again, his troops joining him. Ari balled up her fists and willed herself not to cry out in fury. She had to keep composure, had to find some way out of this, there had to be something. She couldn’t let it end here. She couldn’t let Remi down. Not like this. She looked over at Remi who seemed barely awake. Not like this. 

She looked in the other direction, and saw a small crowd. The people of the asteroid. She had almost forgotten they were there. Most looked frightened at the sight of the famous Solar Rangers beaten and on their knees. Ari cursed herself again. She had let them down. She had run into a situation she wasn’t prepared for and she had let everyone down.

“Ah, we’ve got work to do,” the captain said. “I wanted to stick around and have more fun, but we don’t have the time.” He made a gesture to the Raiders behind Ari and Remi, and Ari felt a hand on her head pushing it down so she was facing the ground. She heard the captain swinging his sword around above her head, before placing it on the back of her neck.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” he jeered one last time. “I’m going to enjoy this. So. Much.”

He raised his sword and Ari tried her best to prepare herself, when she heard another cry of rage coming from behind the captain, followed by a familiar dull smack and the sword fell from her neck. The hands keeping her held down loosened slightly - not enough for her to stand, but enough for her to turn her head and see Veran holding their favourite wrench above the collapsed form of the captain. Ari felt momentarily proud that they had not obeyed the order to stay on the ship, but realised that the Crimson Raiders’ wrath was now turned on them, a realisation that showed on Veran’s face as their expression turned from pleased relief to sudden fear. Nonetheless, they moved into a fighting stance, holding their wrench in both hands as a weapon, ready to take on their opponents. The captain, only stunned, stood again and picked up his sword.

“Fine, I’ll kill you first,” he snarled.

“Try it,” Veran responded with more bravado than they clearly felt, gripping their wrench tighter.

The captain leapt forward and swung at them, but they jumped back. The captain swung again but Veran danced around it, moving to his side and hitting the back of his knee with their wrench. He crumpled, and Veran swung for his head, but the blow was blocked by the sword of another Raider, and Veran quickly dashed back to avoid the captain slashing at their legs. They stepped back again, eyes darting between the now four opponents advancing on them. 

“Well?” asked the captain. “Give up yet?”

Veran closed their eyes and took a deep breath, opening them again to reveal a fire in them Ari had never seen before and holding the wrench up at their side. “Never.”

The captain stepped towards them again, Veran gripping the wrench even tighter, when Ari’s attention was distracted by something streaking through the air and leaving a trail of faint red light behind it, coming from the direction of the ship. Before she even had a chance to wonder what it was, it flew through the air and hit the back of Veran’s left hand.

“What the-” Veran started, but was interrupted by a stream of red light erupting from their hand, engulfing the wrench and then Veran. The light swirled around them and the captain took a step back, shielding his eyes. A few gasps came from the onlookers, and Ari looked over to see Remi, eyes half open but awake, staring in wonder.

Finally, the light stopped and faded. The captain stepped back again, yelling “how?” to nobody. More gasps came from the onlookers.

“No way,” Ari said involuntarily.

“Hell yeah,” Remi said, quietly but with passion.

Where Veran’s slight frame had stood just seconds ago was now a fearsome figure holding a gleaming red mace where the wrench had been. They stood tall and confident in deep red armour, with glowing golden highlights to match the armour Ari and Remi wore. A red Solar Ranger.


	6. Chapter 6

“This...is...amazing!”

Veran’s familiar voice, bursting with joy, came through the speakers of Ari’s earpiece as she stared at the red Solar Ranger in front of her admiring their new armour and weapon.

“I feel like I could lift a building!” Veran exclaimed as they twirled their huge, heavy-looking mace around them like it weighed nothing. “I’ve never felt anything like this!”

The captain, not enamoured with the development, snarled and ran at Veran, who dodged out of the way, leaving their foot out. He tripped on it and fell to the ground, landing with embarrassment. 

“Whoa,” Veran admired their own handiwork. “I didn’t even think about doing that, it just sort of happened.”

Ari smiled, remembering when she and Remi had gone through this exact process. Becoming a Solar Ranger didn’t just entail a brightly coloured suit of armour and weapon. The power of the Solarix made one stronger, faster, quicker to react, and accelerated one’s battle instincts to amazing levels. Veran was right, and Ari knew it would take some time for them to adjust. But once they had, Veran would be a force to be reckoned with.

The captain got up, growling louder, frustration only growing. He charged again at Veran, leaping into the air to gain momentum and crash into them, but Veran simply stepped to the side and let him fall past them. He turned and ran at them again, but they stepped aside with barely any effort, lightly pushing on his shoulder as they did and sending him sprawling over again. He got up one more time, desperate to save face, charging at them and swinging his sword in a figure-eight pattern in front of him, hoping to hit something. Veran ducked out of the way of every swing, and the captain started to wildly swing the direction of Veran’s head, but his target effortlessly avoided every attack, not even needing to lift their weapon to defend themself.

The captain, still in denial about just how outclassed he was without the support of his small army, roared again, anger making his movements wild and his technique sloppy.

“Why! Won’t! You! Just! Die!”

He charged and thrust his sword at Veran’s torso, but without a moment of hesitation they effortlessly kicked it aside, pirouetting on their grounded leg and swinging their mace into the captain’s armoured torso, sending him soaring in a graceless arc into a huddle of his own troops. They collapsed underneath his flying weight, and scrambled to get out from under him to pick themselves up off the ground, looking to the captain for orders. He gave none. He lay face down on the ground. He didn’t get back up again.

Several of the Crimson Raiders started to back away nervously, disturbed at how effortlessly the new Solar Ranger had knocked aside their captain, but Ari knew surprise wouldn’t be enough. They needed to work together to survive this, but before she could say anything, she heard the word “duck” through her earpiece. She did so, breaking her head free from her captor’s grasp and diving to the floor. Remi had clearly heard the instruction too, and despite her injuries, did the same. As she put her head down, Ari saw Veran pull their mace back and throw it horizontally at Ari and Remi’s captors, and with no time to react they were struck down by the spinning weapon. Ari and Remi, now free, rolled away from the horde and stood, helmets materialising around their heads again as they summoned their weapons back and prepared for the fight to start anew.

“Remi, you need to rest,” Ari instructed, but Remi shook her head.

“I can still fight,” she insisted. “I’ll rest when these people are safe.”

Knowing better than to try to dissuade Remi from trying to help others, Ari let the idea go. She knew it wouldn’t work, and she knew it would probably take all three of them to win this fight.

“Oh, I like this a lot,” Veran said, dashing over to join them. “Does morphing always feel like this?”

“Every time,” Remi responded.

The three Solar Rangers stood beside each other. Red, purple, and orange armour gleamed in the light of the nearby star. They held their weapons at the ready as their foes shook off their collective astonishment and prepared to engage them again. Remi shifted her feet into a lower stance. The Raiders chose their targets. Veran breathed out into their helmet’s receiver. The Raiders raised their weapons. Ari gripped her weapons a little bit tighter. The Raiders waited, then one began to yell, and a second later they were all yelling as they charged.

Veran moved first, taking two steps and leaping high into the air, somersaulting forward to build momentum, and brought their mace down, shattering the two swords attempting to catch it and crashing down into the Raider holding them, knocking him straight to the ground. Another tried to approach Veran from the side, but Ari slashed across his back with her bladed knuckle as she ran past, giving Veran a window to sweep his leg out from underneath him and drive their knee into his chest as he fell. Yet another aimed a stab at Veran, but Remi leapt over them and deflected the blow with a thrust of her spear, striking the assailant with the shaft end of her spear as she landed into a crouch, then slashing at his neck with the point as she stood.

The three formed a triangle and stood with their backs to each other, each covering a fraction of the enemy force to protect each other’s backs.

“Nobody gets behind us,” Ari said.

“Nobody gets behind us,” Remi repeated.

“Nobody gets behind us,” Veran finished, and aimed a mighty blow at an opponent in front of them with a war cry, smacking aside the sword intended to parry the blow and breaking the shoulder of its owner, who fell back with a pained yell. A sword was thrust towards Ari, but she caught it between her knuckles and snapped it in two, directing the broken blade towards another assailant who stopped charging and covered his face for long enough for Ari to kick him away, before turning back to her attacker, severing the hand holding the sword and redirecting the falling blade into his heart. Remi spun her spear above her head at an angle to prevent anyone approaching her, and when a sword appeared to intercept the spinning blade, she knocked it aside and thrust the spear through its wielder, pulling the spear back and kicking the lifeless body away from the point with enough force to send it flying into its compatriots.

The Solar Rangers kept the formation, and while the Crimson Raiders continued to fight, none of them found themselves able to get a hit in. Ari suddenly saw a blade flying towards her head and dropped to the ground, kicking out with both of her legs as she did and sending her attacker sprawling backwards. Another tried to approach, but she kicked her feet up and out and hit her new target, using the momentum to spring into an upright position and throw her blades at them, each of which found their marks. She ducked another blow and spun into a sideways kick, the impact carrying her foe off his feet and back through the air.

Remi held her spear horizontally and propelled it upwards to intercept three axes striking down at her at once. The impact made her shift her weight unfavourably on her feet and she started to lose the struggle, the strength of the three wielders pushing her down towards the ground. In a moment, she shifted her weight onto her back foot and let go of her spear as she pulled her front foot back, her attackers stumbling towards her. She spun and aimed an arcing kick that knocked all three axes from their hands. One fell directly towards her and she lunged forward, grabbing him by the chin and driving his head into the ground, the rest of his body following. She picked up her spear as she stood, striking upwards with the shaft at her closer attacker and knocking him on top of the other and both of them onto the ground. She threw her spear at them and it pierced straight through the first and embedded itself in the second’s torso.

Some of the Raiders started to retreat, directionless with the death of their captain and losing confidence. Veran took the opportunity to break formation and engage the now significantly smaller force in front of them. They spun their mace around them to create space, then dashed forward and, in an intimidating show of their power, picked up a hapless Raider who dropped his weapon in shock, threw him into the air and swung her mace like a bat, hitting him with enough force to send him and the fellow Raider he collided with flying off of the nearby edge of the asteroid and into the vacuum of space. They twirled their mace again and brought it to rest on their shoulder, and while Ari couldn’t see under their helmet, she could tell there was a cocky smirk hiding under it.

“Who’s next?”

The Raiders’ collective resolve crumbled. A few more put up a pitiful fight but were dispatched easily by the combined efforts of Ari, Remi, and Veran. The rest ran, desperately scrambling back to their ships, many leaving their weapons behind in their attempts to get away. To Ari’s relief, Veran made no attempt to follow them, and neither did she or Remi. As much as she understood the necessity of lethal force against such evil, neither she nor Remi could ever bring themselves to kill a fleeing opponent. She was glad Veran clearly had the same attitude. She mused at how pointless it may have been to try to spare her conscience, but it was a habit she could never see herself breaking.

Veran turned to Ari.

“Oh wow that was amazing I can’t believe that just happened!” they didn’t leave themself any time to breathe as they jumped on the spot in delight, an action that they regretted as they stopped and doubled over to take several deep breaths, adrenaline wearing off and fatigue setting in. Before Ari had a chance to make a response, the crowd of onlookers came out of hiding and approached them, cheering them on. Ari and Remi dispersed their armour and turned to them, shaking hands and smiling. Veran did the same, but kept their armour on.

Much of what happened afterwards passed in a blur. Ari would never admit it, but much of what happened after a fight was often the same from location to location. It always involved a lot of smiling and shaking hands. She would never say she considered it boring or wished it didn’t happen, she appreciated the gratitude and it was always welcome to have some rest after a gruelling fight.

Veran seemed to be reacting to the attention in much the same way Ari originally had, shyly shaking a few hands and waving uncertainly. Even though they didn’t stay long, Ari thought it odd that Veran didn’t remove their armour for the entirety of the event. Shyness, she assumed. It did take a lot of getting used to, and they had only just become a Solar Ranger a few minutes ago.

Eventually, after checking that the device the Crimson Raiders were looking for was still intact, the Solar Rangers said their farewells and retreated back to the ship. Veran dashed straight to the engine room to check everything was in order, and when they gave the all clear over the intercom, Remi fired the engines up and they left the asteroid. The two collapsed into the deep, soft chairs Veran had installed in the bridge, tired from the fight and aching from their wounds, and Ari made a note to thank Veran for the chairs again. They were so much nicer than the hard and entirely too small standard chairs.

She looked over at Remi, seeing her properly for the first time since the fight, and her breath caught in her throat as she fought the urge to shout something loud and aggressive. Remi sat leaning back in her chair, eyes closed as she rested, her face covered in cuts and bruises from where the Raider captain had beaten her. Thankful as she was to Veran for killing that monster, she found herself wishing she had had a chance to do it herself. To make amends. She couldn’t help but blame herself for Remi’s injuries. It was her fault they had rushed in so quickly, her fault they hadn’t been properly prepared for the first. It was her fault they had been defeated, and would be dead if not for Veran.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, almost hoping Remi didn’t hear it. Remi, however, did hear it.

“What?” she opened her eyes and looked towards Ari. “What are you sorry for? We won.”

“It was my fault,” Ari looked down. “If Veran hadn’t saved us…” She closed her eyes, but her mind was filled with images and ideas of what would have happened. What would have happened to Remi. She tried to shut them out, but they kept coming, worse and more graphic every time she tried. She squeezed her eyes shut again, trying as hard as she could to fight back to tears she could feel welling up in her eyes. She could not deal with the thought of losing Remi and it being her fault, couldn’t prepare for that eventuality. Her mind spiralled further into the idea, unable to pull herself free. If she had just-

To her surprise, she suddenly felt Remi’s arm around her. She opened her eyes to find herself looking deep into Remi’s own eyes. Remi smiled, a comforting, loving expression, and the sharp pain of guilt in Ari’s stomach started to fade. It was amazing how easily Remi did that to her.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Remi told her. “I promise. We were there to help people and we weren’t prepared for how difficult it would be. It would have gone exactly the same way if I was in charge.”

“I don’t think either of us is really in charge-” Ari started, but Remi placed a finger over her lips. Not the time to pick apart arguments, Ari knew.

“I got hurt,” Remi said. “It happens. We fight evil, that’s what happens sometimes. What’s important is that we got out of it, and I’m still here. I’m still here with you.”

Remi kissed her then, and Ari let her guilt and worry melt as everything else ceased to matter, for now at least. Remi was right. They were together, and that was all that mattered.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They sat in silence for a minute before Ari heard a sound from the corridor and looked to see what it was. She got up to start to see what it was, and Remi stood with her, but before Ari reached the door, Veran walked in, still clad in their new shining red armour.

“So,” they started, before seeming to realise they didn’t know where they were going with the sentence. “That, uh, happened.”

“...yeah,” Remi responded. “I can’t say I was expecting that.”

“Not to say it wasn’t welcome,” Ari added somewhat hastily.

“That much was obvious,” Remi shot back. “Rust an’ ruin, we would’ve been dead out there if not for you.” Ari realised they had been talking over Veran somewhat, and Remi was trying to steer the conversation back to them.

“I,” they started. “I guess I should say sorry for not staying on the ship?”

“Veran, come on,” Ari refuted. “You saved our lives out there. You saved everyone’s lives out there. I could not be more thankful that you didn’t stay on the ship.”

“We’re proud of you,” Remi smiled.

“Absolutely we are,” Ari agreed.

“Really?”

“Of course,” Remi said. “How could we not be?”

At this, Veran threw all hints of shyness aside and ran into an embrace with Remi. It was a somewhat absurd image given that Veran was still in their armour that made them look significantly taller and more muscular than they were outside it, and Remi looked somewhat taken aback by being hugged by a suit of armour. It was a feeling that Ari soon experienced as Veran pulled away from Remi and rushed over to hug Ari instead. She fought against her natural response to run from such an action and hugged them back. She thought they deserved it.

Veran pulled away.

“...sorry about that.”

“Now, Veran,” Remi took on a tone that, if Ari didn’t know better, she would almost describe as motherly. “No apologising when you’re right.”

“Okay,” they said. “So, fights like that...is that always how it feels? I mean, I’ve been here and watching you two do it for a while, but that’s the first real fight I’ve been in. Is it always that scary? And...really really exciting and weirdly fun?”

“Most of our fights don’t involve us getting so thoroughly beaten up,” Remi quipped. “But if you’re asking if it ever gets boring? No. No it does not.”

“There’s a few things to adjust to,” Ari added. “The Solarix doesn’t just let you morph.”

“Wha-how do you mean?” Veran asked, sounding equal parts worried and excited.

“You’ll be stronger, for one,” Remi explained. “Faster too. Even outside the armour you still get that.”

“Your reactions are quicker as well,” Ari added. “And your injuries will heal faster than they used to.”

“Basically you just get physically better,” Remi said.

“...that is amazing,” Veran admired.

Ari smiled as she stood and held out her hand towards her new comrade. “Welcome to the Solar Rangers.”

Veran reached out and shook it. “One more question before we go.”

“What’s up?” Remi asked.

“How do I turn the armour off?”


	7. Chapter 7

The three stood in the ship’s bay, watching the door open slowly in front of them. A rush of wind hit them and they all breathed deeply, enjoying the fresh air they didn’t get in the depths of space. They each took a moment to savour the feeling before Ari looked at her compatriots on either side of her, nodding to them. Remi nodded back. Veran couldn’t stop smiling. They never could at this part.

“Solar Power!”

Light swirled and the Solar Rangers dashed out of the ship into the bright sunshine. They left deep footprints in the soft sand underneath them as they ran towards the town they’d landed as close to as they could. Ari took a small leap forward, planting her foot solidly on the ground, and used it to push herself into the air, spinning around and extending her foot out at the last second with a yell. Her kick hit the Boulder squarely in its centre of mass and its body crumbled into various rocks. She landed gracefully and braced herself as Remi leapt, springing off Ari’s shoulders into the air, propelling herself into a forward somersault and bringing her heel down savagely into the head of another Boulder, again making the creature fall apart in a single strike. In a fluid motion she landed and rolled forwards onto her back as Veran leapt towards her. Remi drew her legs back, and as Veran expertly landed on them she kicked out, propelling Veran with enough force that their punch knocked a third Boulder’s torso clean out, sending the rock flying into another creature and knocking it off balance. Ari and Remi ran up to stand beside Veran, the three shifting into a fighting stance as the Boulders stopped their seemingly pointless assault on the buildings and turned to face their new foes.

The force of Boulders was a small one, but a few broke off from the main group and started lumbering towards the ship. Ari thought they were probably trying to sabotage it. Whoever was behind these attacks was getting wise.

“I’ve got ‘em,” Remi called and followed them towards the ship, catching up fast and knocking the lead one off its feet with a swift kick to the legs. Ari turned towards the rest of them, which were now approaching her and Veran. One suddenly moved faster than Ari had ever seen a Boulder move before, and was almost upon them in seconds. Veran summoned their mace in a flash of light, but Ari pushed past them.

“Get behind me!”

Ari rolled forward, underneath the Boulder’s wide swing, and kicked its leg out from under it. As it fell, she grabbed its shoulder and vaulted over it, letting go and landing at the right distance and angle to knock the creature’s head from its body with another swift kick.

“I had that,” Veran complained.

“Focus,” Ari commanded, summoning her chakram into her hands. The other creatures were still approaching, still not many, but more than Ari thought she could take on alone. She threw her chakram at one and it cut off the creature’s arm, but it kept coming. The chakram flew back to her and she split it and stood between them and Veran, ready to fight.

The group was upon them now, but before any of them had a chance to attack, Ari ran forward and dropped to her knees, sliding between two Boulders and cutting out their legs. They dropped to the ground as Ari got up, taking a glancing blow to the side but brushing it off as she parried a strike aimed at her head, slashing at the offending Boulder’s arm. It recoiled and she pressed the attack, stepping to the side and driving her knee into what amounted to the creature’s stomach. It doubled over automatically and she sliced downwards, severing the creature’s neck. As the rocks that made up its body dropped to the ground, she kicked at one of the smaller rocks and sent it flying into another attacker. It flinched and she took the opportunity to combine her blades back into a chakram and send it flying, embedding itself into the creature, which fell defeated.

Ari congratulated herself, but then caught a brief glimpse of Veran engaged in combat with another Boulder.

“Veran!” she called, and started to run towards them, but found her way blocked by another Boulder swinging its huge fist at her. She leaned out of the way and pushed it backwards, before darting forward. She hooked her foot behind the creature’s leg and pulled it backwards, while driving her outstretched arm into the creature’s chest. The force of the attacks knocked the creature off its feet and upside down, landing on its head and crumbling into stones from the impact. 

Her obstacle out of the way, she ran towards Veran again, who was blocking a punch from the Boulder attacking them. She leapt into the air, and threw her whole body into the creature, knocking it over. She rolled as she hit the ground into an upright stance and turned in time to see Veran bring their mace crashing down onto the Boulder. Their foe vanquished, Veran turned to Ari.

“What was that about?” they asked.

“You were in trouble,” Ari responded.

“I was fine,” Veran insisted. “I can handle myself.”

Ari suddenly noticed a Boulder about to attack Veran and ran to put herself between them, but Veran got their first, turning and swinging their mace into the creature’s approaching arm hard enough to shatter it, using the momentum to spin themself around and hit it in the head with a jumping kick. Ari summoned her chakram back to her again and ran into the fray, slashing at them wildly. A couple still reached Veran, but they made short work of them with deadly blows from their mace and quick punches and kicks. Ari separated her weapon and sliced a Boulder clean in half, and as she turned to face what she now saw was the last remaining enemy, it was suddenly finished off by an orange spear being thrown through it. Ari picked it out of the creature’s body and returned it to Remi, who ran over to join them having finished off her own group.

“Well, that went smoothly,” she quipped.

After the people of the attacked desert settlement thanked them and they went on their way, Veran was quiet on the walk back to the ship. Once they got inside, they dispersed their armour, and Remi left in the direction of the bridge to take off. Ari moved to follow.

“Ari, can we, um, can we talk?” Veran called after her and Ari stopped and turned to face them.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Ari asked.

Veran took a deep breath as if preparing to say something they didn’t feel entirely confident saying. 

“Listen, I’ve been meaning to say this for a while, but...I…”

They stopped, having lost their confidence. It looked like they were going to speak up again, but then they sighed.

“No, sorry, it’s nothing,” they said. “Forget it.”

“Veran-” Ari started.

“It’s not important,” Veran interrupted and walked away in the direction of the engine room.

Ari knew they were lying. She knew it was something important, and racked her brain thinking about what she could have done to upset them. Then she remembered the conversation she had had with Remi, and how Remi had said she was treating Veran like a child, and ran after them.

By the time she caught up Veran had already reached the engine room and was kneeling by the base of the engine, checking over some of the systems to make sure everything was in order. They had been spending even more time in this room than before recently, and Ari was definitely getting worried about it.

“Veran,” she started, then realised she had no plan and no idea what she was going to say. Veran turned to her, expecting the rest of a sentence, but Ari couldn’t come up with anything for some time.

“Ari, look, it’s nothing,” Veran insisted, but Ari didn’t accept it.

“It’s not nothing,” she said. “I know what I’ve done to upset you, I know I’ve been acting… overprotective.”

Veran stood up, paying attention now.

“Listen, I…”Ari struggled to find the words. “I’ve lost a lot of people in my life. People I got close to who got killed for that. For a long time I avoided getting close to people for that reason.”

“Okay…” Veran nodded slowly.

“But that also means when I do get close to people, I get protective,” she explained. “Very protective. Maybe too protective, but that’s just how I’ve learned.”

Veran nodded again, but said nothing. Clearly they were paying attention, but their expression had not softened, as if they were waiting for something else to be said.

“So, if I do treat you like that, that’s why,” Ari finished. “I’m not doubting you, I just...I need to protect people. So I do.”

There was a long pause as Ari waited for a response from Veran, but none came. Again their expression stayed expectant, but Ari didn’t know what they wanted. After a few seconds it became clear that Ari was finished speaking, and Veran spoke their piece:

“That’s it?”

“...what? What do you mean, ‘that’s it?’,” Ari questioned, feeling slightly put out that she had just bared her soul to apparently no avail.

“That’s all you’ve got to say?” Veran asked, incredulous.

“Well what else do you want me to say?” Ari asked back, feeling insulted. She thought that what she had said had been enough.

“You know what made me upset, and you acknowledged that you did it,” Veran started. “But instead of apologising or saying you’ll avoid doing it again, you just tell me why actually I shouldn’t be upset by you treating me like a liability?”

“Apologise?” Ari demanded. “I shouldn’t need to apologise for trying to help you!”

“I may not have your experience, but the Solarix chose me!” Veran shot back, their voice rising. “I’m a Solar Ranger just as much as you are, and I don’t need protecting! I’m not a child, and I’m sick of you treating me like one!”

“Not a child?” Ari knew she shouldn’t get worked up, knew it was a bad idea and that she needed to walk away and reevaluate the situation, but she was truly riled now. “Then explain the tantrum you’re having! I was just giving you a hand out there!”

“I can handle myself,” Veran insisted. “And this is hardly the first time. I should have said this a while ago but you keep acting like I’m constantly in trouble and can’t hold my own!”

“If I knew you were going to throw it back in my face when I tried to help you in a fight I wouldn’t have bothered!” Ari’s pride was truly wounded now.

“Then don’t!” Veran shouted back, shyness forgotten as righteous anger gave them confidence they rarely showed. “I don’t need your help, and I don’t need you acting like I’m useless!”

“Okay, next time we’re in a fight and you’re about to get hurt, I’ll leave you to it!” Ari yelled as she turned and stormed out of the engine room, lamenting how the automatic doors didn’t let her slam them behind her. She stomped towards the bridge, changed her mind, turned back towards the engine room, changed her mind again, and finally decided on her and Remi’s quarters.

She collapsed onto their bed, holding her head in her hands and groaning in anger. She wanted to keep being angry, furious at Veran for throwing her kindness and attempts to help back in her face, but as the adrenaline from the fight wore off it became more and more difficult to keep up the level of anger necessary to avoid seeing the argument from Veran’s side. She tried to stop herself thinking about it, wanting to be justified, trying to force herself back into anger so she could feel vindicated, but she couldn’t avoid the nagging thought pushing its way into the front of her mind that maybe Veran was right, and she had been treating them unfairly.

Before she had a chance to really think about it, however, the intercom sounded across the room as Remi summoned her to the bridge. She sighed, anger from the argument still not entirely subsided, and rushed to the bridge.

“We’ve got two signals,” Remi explained as she entered. “Both from the same asteroid, but in different locations, pretty far from each other. We’ll need to split up.”

Veran entered the room and pointedly avoided looking at Ari. They clearly weren’t interested in talking to her.

“As I was saying, we’ll need to make two teams,” Remi said, pointing at the screen she was standing by. “One of us will take this signal to the west, and the other two will take this one in the north.”

Ari and Veran nodded, but said nothing.

“So, any thoughts on who wants to go alone?”

“Maybe Ari should go,” Veran said in a bitter tone. “I doubt she’d trust either of us to handle it ourselves.”

In a moment, the anger was back. “Maybe Veran should take it,” she shot back, just as bitter. “They’re clearly desperate to take on everything alone.”

“Okay, I don’t know what happened between you two,” Remi lectured. “But we don’t have time for it, and also I don’t care. Ari, you take the west signal, Veran and I will take the north. We’ll be in range to drop you off in two minutes. You two can take some time apart to cool off, and we’ll sort out whatever this little scrap is when we get back.”

“Fine by me,” Ari said, more petulant than she had intended, earning an exasperated look from Remi. She looked like she was going to say something scathing, something Ari probably deserved, but shook her head.

“Smoke an’ sacrifice, what is going on between you two?” she muttered. “Whatever, I really don’t have time for this mess. We’re coming in over the first signal. Ari, you’re up.”

Ari took a breath and nodded. Her discussion with Veran would have to wait. She ran through the ship, down into the bay where the door was opening. She looked out and saw a wild thunderstorm in the distance, then looked down to see the ground flying past at dizzying speed, but gradually slowing down as Remi hit the brakes to let her disembark safely. She took another deep breath, trying to dispel the anger and frustration still forcing their way into her mind. 

Remi’s voice rang out over the radio.

“Go! Go! Go!”

Ari snapped her eyes open and ran forward, leaping out of the opening doors. She fell towards the ground, arms and legs spread to slow her fall, and saw the ship speed up and disappear above her towards the storm. She silently wished Remi and Veran all the luck they would need, then slapped her palm to the Solarix Shard on the back of her hand.

“Solar Power!”

She somersaulted into an upright position as her armour formed around her and landed as gracefully as she could manage. She examined her surroundings to find nothing standing out. A few caravans stood on the concrete ground, but there was nothing else to be seen. No Boulders, no Crimson Raiders, not even any signs of a struggle or disaster. This had definitely been where the distress signal had come from, but there was nothing to indicate any trouble.

“Remi, is this definitely the right place?” she said into her earpiece, but as she set the frequency to receive a message back, all she heard was static. That worried her: maybe the signal was being jammed, or maybe Remi was in trouble, but she pushed the worry to the back of her mind. Remi could look after herself, and she had Veran with her as well. It was most likely just the thunderstorm causing interference. She pushed her doubts aside and decided to investigate the area. There had to be some clue as to what was happening.

None of the caravans showed any signs of distress or damage, and there really was nothing else around. Ari made a quick leap on top of one of the caravans, and thought she heard something inside, like something falling over, but she dismissed it as paranoia. It was most likely just the structure shifting under her weight and the impact of her landing. She turned on her feet, scanning the horizon, but saw nothing of note. In the distance to the west she could see what looked like a town, but much too far away to be the source of the signal. To the north she could see more buildings, a city, where the thunderstorm was happening, and assumed that was where the other signal was coming from, the one being investigated by Remi and Veran. A road stretched as far as the eye could see, and once the concrete lot ended it became fields with seemingly no end.

Ari leapt off the caravan back to the ground, and tried the door of the vehicle. It was locked, but as she rattled the door she definitely heard something inside. A very faint sound, but it sounded distinctly like someone drawing a sharp breath. She knocked again.

“Hello? Is someone in there?”

No response. She knocked again.

“I’m here to help, I’m the Purple Solar Ranger. We received a distress signal from this location.”

Again, no response. She tried one more time.

“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to m-”

The door burst open and a figure leapt forward, hitting her in the head with a large and heavy bat, and impact hard enough that she felt it even through her helmet. Ari stumbled back, stunned, and heard several more doors behind her open. Before she could get her bearings she felt several sets of arms grabbing her from behind and holding her still, and another pair of arms ripped her helmet from her head. She blinked, her vision coming back into focus and she saw the long red coat of the person who had hit her. A Crimson Raider. The two distress signals, the caravans, the radio interference: all of it had been a trap.

“Remi, Veran!” she yelled into her radio as loudly as her failing voice allowed. “Get out! It’s a trap, get out of there!” But all she heard coming back was static. They couldn’t hear her. Nobody could hear her.

Ari heard a low droning sound to her right and managed to look over to see a ship approaching in the distance at high speed, but she couldn’t make out any details. She hoped it was Remi and Veran coming to rescue her, but didn’t have long to hope as her first attacker hit her on the head with the bat again and everything went dark.


	8. Chapter 8

The slap woke Ari up. Her instinctive response was to hit back, but as she brought her hand down from above her head to throw a sluggish punch it stopped. She struggled to move it as her vision came back into a vague definition of focus and she looked up to see that her wrists were encased in manacles above her head attached by thick chains to the stone ceiling.

“She’s awake!” the voice announcing it came from behind her. It sounded mocking, triumphant. Ari immediately decided she hated it.

“You’re going to regret this,” Ari hissed. “So. Much.”

The voice answered with a laugh. “You’re not in a position to be making threats.”

Ari tried to kick out behind her but her foot moved too slowly, and then it stopped. She realised that her ankles were also chained. Whoever was imprisoning her desperately didn’t want her to get out. That was good. That meant they were scared of her. And she could use that to her advantage, she hoped.

The voice from behind continued. “You almost woke up a few times but we kept you down. A bunch of us thought you weren’t going to wake up again after the last one, with all the knockout serum we gave you.”

“You...you drugged me,” Ari realised why she was moving slowly, why her vision was still blurred, and why she couldn’t feel anything but a dull pain in her wrists and ankles.

“Quite a lot in fact,” the voice started pacing behind her, back and forth. Taunting her. “We didn’t want you escaping on us, we’ve got big plans for what we’re going to do with you.”

“How long…” she started, but her voice failed her, her body refusing to wake up, the anaesthetic in her system still keeping her consciousness down.

The voice didn’t answer, and before she had a chance to ask another question or say anything else Ari felt a sharp sting in her neck.

“N...no…” she struggled to say as the liquid was slowly pumped into her veins.

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead,” the voice said in response. “But we’re not ready for you yet.”

“I’ll...kill you…” Ari tried to say but all that came out was slurring as her eyes refused to stay open and her body shut down around her.

Another slap woke her up again, though she couldn’t tell how much time had passed. Again she tried responding with a punch but her hands were still chained. She blinked several times in succession and found to her relief that her vision was better than it was the last time. She felt less sluggish and more awake. Whatever the voice had used to knock her out had worn off for the most part, and it wouldn’t long until she was awake and able to move again. Not that it would help her with her hands chained, but it was something.

She examined her surroundings as best she could. Thin beams of sunlight shone in from between the large blocks of stone making up the walls, barely illuminating a room large enough to hold many people, and she could see that was the purpose of the room by the multiple sets of manacles hanging from the low ceiling at regular intervals, though none but hers were occupied. She slowly became aware she could hear a noise from her right, not loud but constant, though she couldn’t identify what it was.

“And she’s back in the room,” the mocking voice was there again. Ari tried to get a look at him. She couldn’t, so she tried to twist her body around to get a better position, which was how she realised her ankles were no longer chained to the floor. She instinctively kicked out, hoping to hit her captor, but he deftly stepped out of the way and into her line of sight. Her eyebrows furrowed in anger. It was the same Crimson Raider who had hit her and knocked her out by the caravans.

Feeling that she could move her hands enough to do so, she pressed her palm to the back of her other hand and shouted “Solar Power!”, but nothing happened. Her Solarix Shard wasn’t on the back of her hand like it usually was. A fairly obvious development, she reasoned, but worth a try. The Raider captain just laughed at her attempt.

“Let me go or you’ll regret it,” she demanded.

“Do you ever say anything that isn’t an empty threat?” he snarled, still taunting her and standing just out of reach of her kicks, pacing around her as if flaunting that he could still move while she was confined to the one spot. “How will you make me regret it so much when you can’t even move?”

“The other rangers will find me,” she threatened. “They can track my signal from the Solarix Shard. They’ll find you and kill you.”

“You mean the Solarix Shard we destroyed?” he asked almost casually, pretending to examine his fingernails in a display of infuriating arrogance. “They can’t track dust, and that’s all it is now. Dust.”

“You’re lying,” Ari accused, but she couldn’t see any confirmation in his expression. He didn’t seem nervous, and he wasn’t overcompensating by doubling down on the idea. Maybe he wasn’t lying. It was most likely possible to destroy a Solarix Shard. Ari felt panic rising. If he really had destroyed it she had no armour, no powers, and no way for the other rangers to find her. She really was alone and powerless, and suddenly her bluster and threats seemed a lot more empty.

“Why haven’t you killed me?” she demanded.

“What a waste that would be,” the captain answered. “When there’s so much more you can do for us.”

“I won’t do anything for you,” she shot back.

“You won’t have a choice.”

Ari spat as close as she could to him. “Do your worst. You’ll never make me bow.”

“Much as I’d like to see it, I don’t need you to bow,” the captain approached her, making sure she saw him walking around the mark on the floor her spit had landed. He grabbed her chin and dragged her face right in front of his own. “I just need you to fight.”

He let go of her chin and Ari recoiled back, partially in defiance and partially to get away from his disgusting breath. He drew his sword, an oversized thing with a serrated edge, and held it up to her throat and she froze where she was, not daring to move. Confident she wasn’t going to attack, the captain reached into his pocket and retrieved a key. Reaching up above her head he slotted the key into each of the manacles restraining her in turn, turning it and releasing her right hand, then her left. As soon as her hands were free Ari leapt back away from the sword, but the captain didn’t seem surprised.

“Now you’re going to get out there and fight,” he said, pointing to Ari’s right. She looked and saw a wooden door built into the stone wall.

“Where am I?” Ari demanded, not moving.

“You’re in the Meat Grinder,” the captain said, clearly hoping to scare her with the ominous name. It worked, but Ari would never let him know that.

“Is that supposed to mean anything to me?”

“It’s where we Raiders train our elites,” the captain explained. “The people of this world just loved their combat and when we took over we decided to use their biggest arena for our own purposes. You’re going to be fighting the biggest and best we have, they’ve been tripping over themselves to kill one of the famous Solar Rangers. Try to give the people a good show before they rip you limb from limb.” He laughed again and Ari decided to put killing him at the top of her list of priorities.

“And if I don’t?” she asked.

“Then I’ll do it myself,” he rushed at her, backing her up against the wall and holding his serrated blade up to her head again. “Right here. Right now.”

Ari swallowed her pride. She didn’t have a choice. Much as her defiant nature was telling her to refuse, there was still the slightest chance of escape or rescue. She closed her eyes and thought of Remi and Veran. How her last conversation with Veran had been an argument. How her last interaction with Remi had been disappointing her. That couldn’t be how it ended. She wouldn’t let that be how it ended. Even the smallest chance, she had to take it. She had to make things right.

She snapped her eyes open and shoved the captain’s sword aside, but as he snarled again and made to strike, she walked towards the door. The captain stopped and let her pass. She put her hand on the door.

“Good luck,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Ari considered a response, but decided against it. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. She opened the door and stepped through, closing it behind her.

She was now in a long hallway made of the same stone as the holding pen she had just left. She took a deep breath and started to walk. As she got further and further down the hall, the stone floor gave way more and more to sand that shifted beneath her boots. The sound she had heard grew louder and louder and she realised it was the sound of a cheering crowd. Not only was she going to be killed by Crimson Raiders, she’d have a huge audience to watch her die.

After a walk that felt like it lasted for ages, but Ari wished had lasted much much longer, she arrived at the end, another wooden door in front of her. She closed her eyes and breathed.

“Remi, Veran,” she said to nobody but herself. “If this doesn’t end well...I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t make things right.”

She opened the door to sunlight blinding her and the roar of the crowd becoming deafening in an instant. The heat of the sun beat down upon her as she stepped out into the vast arena and closed the door behind her. The captain hadn’t been lying: the colosseum was huge, surrounded on all sides by stands, and Ari saw that most of the stands were full. As she stepped out she heard a loud and excited voice ring out over a loud speaker and rolled her eyes.

“And here she is, one of the infamous Solar Rangers herself! How long will she last without her feared powers! Can she stand against the best of the Crimson Raiders? How many pieces will she be left in at the end of the day! Are you ready to find ouuuuuuuuuuuut?!”

“So much for training,” Ari muttered to herself. However much the captain took pride in the arena being for training purposes, it was very clear it was about entertaining a crowd. For all the Crimson Raiders’ protestations about their noble and virtuous cause, they clearly enjoyed blood sport as much as any of the other citizens of the universe they considered beneath them.

The roar of the crowd grew louder again as Ari heard a large metal gate clanking open on the other side of the arena, and shielded her eyes from the sun to see several hulking brutes in tattered and ripped Crimson Raider garb emerge into the arena.

“For our opening round our special guest will fight six of the most brutal gladiators to ever grace the Meat Grinder! Are you readyyyyyyyyyyy?!”

Ari scanned the battlefield looking for anything to use to her advantage, any weapons or traps or cover or anything, but her search came up short. The field was bare. Nothing but her and her opponents. She breathed in deeply, and started to walk slowly towards her opponents, who were running towards her. She tried to project confidence she did not feel, an intimidation tactic, but it clearly didn’t work. She was outnumbered, alone, and powerless. 

Her opponents were getting closer by the second, the roar of the crowd getting louder, the sun feeling hotter on her face. The beginnings of a strategy started to form in her mind. They were almost upon her, and she didn’t have time to plan. It was time to fight for her life.

She broke into a sprint and started the fight as she often did: she leapt into a flying kick. The Raider she was aiming at managed to move out of the way at the last second but the one behind him didn’t, and her foot connected hard with his face. She felt his nose break before she heard him cry out and he fell backwards, Ari using the momentum to spring off of him and land behind the group. They all turned to face her, taken aback by the speed of her attack, and as they did they found themselves blinded by the sun. Ari took the chance and managed to knock two down with the distraction, sweeping out one’s feet and driving her knee into his ribs as he fell, then stunning another with a quick jab to the eye and grabbing his head, pushing him off balance and throwing him to the floor. She darted back before any of the group could counterattack. Three down, three to go.

But as she celebrated her successful opening move, the three fighters she had knocked down simply got back up, wiped away the blood, and advanced on her again. These weren’t rank and file soldiers sent out on basic errands. These were seasoned warriors who lived for battle, and without her armour Ari was nowhere near as physically strong or fast as she was used to being in fights. Just her connection to the Grid through the Solarix granted her peak physical performance, but these gladiators had trained all their lives. They were at the exact same level. It was never going to be that easy.

A punch came towards her and she dodged out of the way, but as she did she had to swiftly duck to avoid another punch, and another, and another, and soon she was almost running away from them, all of her effort focused on just avoiding the next punch. Every one seemed to get closer to hitting her, and she could barely see where all the blows were coming from-

Ari’s cheek erupted in pain as the fist hit her with enough force to send her off the ground. Blood poured from her mouth as she hit the ground hard, skidding along the loose sand and coming to a stop. The crowd roared again and the announcer said something but she barely heard it above the ringing in her ears from the single, unstoppable blow. She curled her hand into a fist and punched the ground, pushing herself up and onto her feet, standing as tall as she could. 

A fist flew towards her, but she dodged it, caught the arm, twisted it behind its owner’s back and pulled as hard as she could. She smirked when she felt the satisfying pop of his shoulder dislocating, but had no time to revel as she ducked another punch. She dashed backwards, away from the group again. She was going to have to resort to hit and run tactics if she wanted to win. That wouldn’t be a problem.

“She’s putting up quite a fight!” the announcer shouted over the jeering crowd. “How long can she keep this up?”

She knocked a kick aimed at her to the side and countered with her own, kicking her foe straight in the stomach expecting him to double over and expose the back of his neck for a knockout blow, but he barely seemed to register the hit and just kept swinging his fist at her. She jumped back, but at the wrong angle: a kick aimed at her legs hit her and her knees buckled. She hit the ground hard on her knees and tried to stand back up, but another kick sent her flying onto her back, where another kick hit her in the stomach, and another on her back, and another and then all six of her opponents were gathered around her, kicking every spot on her body they could get to. Ari instinctively curled up and covered her head as her whole body screamed in pain as the blows just kept coming and the crowd got louder and the announcer shouted in excitement and she couldn’t feel anything but pain as they hit her again and again and again and again and again.

She didn’t even know when she lost consciousness but she eventually woke up again. She raised her head: she was back in the holding cell, hands chained to the ceiling again. She could barely see through her hair obscuring her vision, but when she tried to shake it away from her eyes it didn’t move, stuck to her face as it was with dried blood. She coughed and wet red dots appeared on the floor in front of her. Every part of her was in pain.

“Well well well,” that voice from before. The captain. Not now, she wanted to say, but words didn’t come out. Not now. “That didn’t go well for you.”

She flicked her eyes up, unable to even muster the energy to raise her head.

“Though the crowd found it entertaining,” he continued to taunt her. He was clearly having so much fun. Ari wondered if they’d encountered each other before, if she had specifically wronged him, but try as she might to place him or cast her mind back, she couldn’t focus on anything but his voice and the pain.

“Why haven’t you killed me?” she managed to ask.

“That wouldn’t be any fun, would it?” he replied in that infuriating tone that she was really growing to hate. But right now she didn’t have the energy to be angry. He laughed again and walked away, retreating into the darkness.

“Rest up!” he called back to her. “It all starts again tomorrow.”


	9. Chapter 9

Ari lay with Remi on their bed. Remi was sleeping peacefully with her head in Ari’s lap. Ari loved it when Remi did that. It made her feel calm. It made her feel loved. She didn’t let herself be vulnerable very often but she couldn’t help it here. Ari really loved it when Remi slept with her head in Ari’s lap.

She heard a noise outside their room and looked to see Veran walk by. They smiled at her. Ari smiled back as they kept walking. The argument they’d had was forgotten. Everything was well.

She was so glad they’d found her. So glad they’d rescued her. She couldn’t quite remember how it happened, but it didn’t matter. She was safe. She was with Remi and Veran. She was with her fa-

Yet again Ari was woken by a slap to the face, the effect of the knockout drugs they kept using on her receding from the impact. Her wrists hurt above her head. She swallowed and her mouth tasted of blood. She hadn’t been rescued. The dream faded from her mind and she was back in the holding pen of the Meat Grinder.

“Morning,” came the sneering voice again. The captain - in one of the only acts of rebellion left to her, Ari had steadfastly refused to learn his name - had walked away from her after waking her up and now stood leaning against the wall, eyeing her with contemptuous glee at her torment. Ari shook her head to wake herself up and swallowed, and was relieved that she didn’t taste blood anymore. Despite how badly she had been hurt during it, she had actually won her last match. Only three fighters had gone up against her, but it was the first and, she suspected, the last time. It had been a hollow victory, and by the end she hadn’t even had the strength to struggle when someone had grabbed her from behind and drugged her unconscious again. The audience didn’t like it when she won. Her captor liked it even less.

“How long do you think you’ve been here, hmm?” he asked. “How many fights? How many losses? How many humiliations?”

“...I’ve lost count,” Ari admitted. She didn’t think it could have been very long, no more than a few weeks at most, but the passage of time had gone over her head. It had stopped being a priority when every time she woke up she had no idea how long it had been since she was last awake, and it wouldn’t be long before she was out again.

“And yet, you keep hanging on,” the captain taunted. “You just won’t quit.”

The captain cleared his throat, clearly expecting a response from Ari. She didn’t give one. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He carried on anyway.

“Seems the audience is getting bored of you, Ellarien,” he spat. The first time he had used her name. Ari wondered how he learned it, but reasoned that she was a prominent public figure and a lot of people probably knew her name. Also, she found she didn’t care how he knew it. Just that she hated the sound of him saying it.

“And as much as I’d love to keep hurting you forever,” he continued, “and believe me -” he pushed himself off the wall and drew closer to her, his voice dropping to a whisper -”I would love nothing more than to keep hurting you forever…”

Ari again refused to respond, contenting herself with glaring at him with murderous intent.

“...I am at the whims of my audience,” the captain finished his thought at last. “Today will be your last fight. You won’t survive.”

“Did I strike a nerve with you?” Ari asked finally. “You seem even less stable than anybody in your little band of psychopaths.”

“Oh, there’s the smarm,” the captain’s smile faded slightly. “I was waiting for that. Always with that infuriating wit.”

“Oh,” Ari said, a knowing smirk growing on her face as the realisation dawned on her. “We’ve met before somewhere, haven’t we?”

He stomped right up to her and grabbed her chin again, but Ari refused to flinch or be cowed. She was under his skin, she knew it. He pulled her face right next to his.

“Do you recognise me now?” he demanded, trying and failing to keep a lid on his rising anger. “Do you, wretch?”

“Tell you what,” Ari said, savouring his petulant frustration. “Refresh my memory.”

“I was there!” he roared in her face, but she refused to back down. “Kozal Outpost! Where we would have beaten you if your Red Ranger hadn’t saved you! Where you killed my comrades!”

“You mean your comrades who were trying to murder everyone on the asteroid?” Ari asked back.

He slapped her. She slowly turned her head back to stare at him again, in both rage and amusement. There hadn’t been much in her days to enjoy for however long she had been here, but she was taking only slightly guilty pleasure in this.

“We fought, that day,” he hissed. “But you’re nothing now! Without your precious armour you’re nothing!”

“And yet I’m still winning,” Ari mocked him.

“I’m a captain now!” he ranted. “I have everything I could want! You’re mine! I own you! Don’t pretend you don’t recognise me. Don’t pretend you don’t remember me!”

Ari just laughed at him. He drew back, surprised.

“That day changed everything for you, huh?” she said. “When you got your ass kicked by the Solar Rangers and declared vengeance? Well, let me tell you a secret.”

She approached him this time, as much as her chains would allow. She knew riling him up was a bad idea, but she was beyond caring. If today was to be her last day, she was going to get whatever satisfaction she could from watching her captor squirm.

“I don’t remember you. That was just another day to me. It was nothing.”

She looked right into his eyes.

“You were nothing.”

He drew his sword and held it to her throat. Ari didn’t back down. He held it there for several minutes as Ari glared at him, daring him to do it. She didn’t like the idea of dying here, but she knew that dying while she still had the upper hand against her captor was the best she was going to get out of the situation. But eventually he sheathed his sword.

“I don’t care,” he lied. “You will go out into the arena later. You’ll fight our strongest gladiator alone. Barosi will kill you.”

Barosi. Ari had heard that name from the announcer and the occasional audience chant, but had never met him. She had heard about his feats from the few times another captive had been held in the same room as her, or when the captain was in a particularly talkative and sadistic mood after a fight he enjoyed. Barosi was supposed to be the most brutal and deadly gladiator in the Meat Grinder. Ari didn’t relish the chance to fight him powerless. Even despite her very limited interactions with anybody in the arena, Barosi’s reputation was enough to make even her nervous.

The captain walked towards the wooden door leading to the arena, his heavy footsteps matching his heavy, furious breaths as he tried to regain control.

“And I will enjoy watching you die.”

With that he walked away from her and exited through the door, leaving her chained to the ceiling alone. Ari held onto the chains to take the weight off of her wrists and leaned back, settling into as comfortable a position as she could, sighed in mixed relief and despair, and closed her eyes.

“So this is it,” she said to nobody, not even caring if someone was listening from outside. She honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However long she had been here, she had held out some hope that something would happen. Somebody would slip up, she would win her freedom or escape, or that Remi and Veran would rescue her. But she knew it was an empty hope from the start. There was no escape. There was no victory. And her friends wouldn’t find her. How would they even start? She’d never see them again.

Remi. She thought of Remi. She couldn’t think of anything else. How much she missed her. How much she desperately wanted to see her again, just one more time. To hold her one more time. To kiss her one more time. To tell her “I love you” just one more time.

“I was going to ask her to marry me one of these days,” Ari said to nobody, laughing emptily. The satisfaction of beating the captain had faded and now her mind sank to despair. After everything that had happened, everything she had been through, everything she had done and fought and survived, she was going to die on a desert planet for the amusement of an audience and an old foe she didn’t even remember. She would never morph again. She would never quietly lie with Remi and enjoy her company again. She would never get the opportunity to apologise to Veran for how she treated them.

Ari didn’t let herself be vulnerable very often. She couldn’t afford to. But here, reflecting on her situation, Ari leaned back in her chains, alone, and let herself be vulnerable once, on her own, at what was the end of her life. She let herself weep gently until she fell asleep one last time.

She woke up to the sound of the door slamming open. In strode the captain, clearly recovered from their previous conversation. 

“I hope you’ve made peace,” he laughed. “Actually, I hope you haven’t. It’s more fun that way.”

He sauntered over to her and unlocked her manacles, holding his sword to her to force her where he wanted, and directed her over to the door. Towards where Barosi was waiting for her.

“Good luck,” he said with as much slime as he could muster.

Ari considered throwing the fight. Surrendering and letting Barosi kill her without a fuss. Rob the audience of their precious fight. She thought it might be amusing in her last moments. But then she looked back and saw the captain’s infuriating grin and decided to hell with it. If this was to be the last thing she ever did, she’d do it with as much defiance as she could. She had promised not to let him break her, and she was going to keep that promise and go down fighting as hard and as long as she could stand. She spat at him one more time for good measure and turned her back on him before he could respond, closing the door behind her and striding towards her doom.

She emerged into the arena one last time to the now familiar roar of a crowd hungry to watch her die. She refused to give them any kind of satisfaction. She would not be cowed. She paid them no heed as she entered the arena, staring straight ahead at where she knew her enemy would emerge.

“And here she is for what promises to be the last time!” yelled the announcer whose voice Ari had really come to hate. “The former Solar Ranger has fought and lost for your entertainment time and time again, but today she faces her final match!”

The crowd grew louder in anticipation of what they knew was coming. Ari clenched her fists.

“It’s the fight you’ve aaaaaaaaaall been waiting for!”

The cheering grew ever more cacophonous. Ari moved her right foot back and dug the ball of her foot into the sand to create a foothold from which to spring forward from.

“The infamous Solar Ranger!”

Ari knew she wouldn’t last long. It was taking most of her energy just to keep standing in the blazing sun.

“Versus!”

She crouched down into a fighting pose, ready to pounce at any moment, but knowing that it wouldn’t avail her.

“The one!”

Ari crouched lower and shifted her weight onto her front foot.

“The only!”

She raised her fists.

“BAAAAAAAAAAAAAROSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

The gate at the other end of the arena opened and her opponent emerged. He was recognisably human, or at least humanoid, but huge in proportions, not much taller than Ari was but built like a mountain, and even from a distance Ari could see that every pound of it was muscle. Even at full strength Ari knew she would struggle to stand a chance against him in a fight, and she was far from full strength. He ran into the arena, arms spread in celebration and invitation of applause. He’d been doing this for a while, it seemed. He wore manacles around his wrists with short chains dangling from them, but Ari knew it was for show. A tactic meant to intimidate his opponents even further, making him look like a wild beast who had to be restrained to be kept under control. Even if Ari couldn’t see straight through the ruse, she was intimidated enough as it is. He looked truly fearsome.

Ari didn’t have time to admire or even plan much of a strategy however. The second he saw her, he started barrelling towards her at a shocking velocity given his size. Ari barely had time to dig her feet into the sand before she had to push her feet off the ground into a leap, diving into a roll past her approaching opponent to avoid his initial assault. She began to think about any kind of strategy against him, anything that would give her an edge, but the arena was as empty as ever and as she glanced upwards she realised that the sun was directly above them: the captain had scheduled the fight at midday. Ari suspected it was done specifically to stop her from using the tactic she’d used in her first match, blinding her opponents with the sun.

Once again, however, she didn’t have time to think, as Barosi, undeterred, had turned and was bearing down on her again at frightening speed. He swung a fist in a wide arc at her head and Ari ducked to avoid it while raising her arm in a parry, but the parry did nothing as the force of the punch simply knocked her arm away. With the speed of the punch and the momentum of the arc, if she hadn’t ducked that one attack might have knocked her out in a single blow.

Ari danced back, deciding the best strategy would be staying out of his range, but it proved an ineffective one, as every attempt to retreat was countered by Barosi’s speed. Every attack he threw at her that she just barely dodged, he used as a setup for another attack, never needing to take a break and always attacking directly on target, no matter how far or what direction she backed away from him. The crowd grew restless and the sound rang in Ari’s ears as finally, after what seemed like an eternity only just staying out of the way of Barosi’s onslaught, he stopped, standing up straight and rounding on her without attacking.

“Pathetic,” he growled, his green eyes pulsing with anger. “I was expecting a fight.”

“And here I thought this was an execution,” Ari managed to say between heavy breaths.

“I fight,” the gladiator towered above Ari. “I was born here, and I have lived my life here. I have trained to fight all my life, and fighting is what I have done with my life. I do not lose fights, but I was hoping you would provide me with some bare challenge.”

“In my defence,” Ari retorted, “if I was at full strength I would match you.”

“So I’d heard,” Barosi intoned, his deep voice filled with equal parts pride and revulsion. “If you were anyone else I would demand a rematch when you were capable.”

“If I was anyone else?” Ari asked, bluster forgotten in favour of searching for a way out.

“Indeed so,” Barosi continued. “But you have killed a lot of my comrades, Ranger, and for that I will kill you in turn.”

“And there’s no way I can convince you otherwise?” Ari asked, hating how desperate she sounded, but she reasoned she didn’t have the luxury of choosing her tone now. Even despite the warnings and reputations she had underestimated how bad a situation she was in.

“No,” Barosi said flatly and before she had a chance to react, punched her directly in the stomach. Ari’s feet left the ground as the force of the punch carried her into the air, and though she landed back on her feet she immediately sank to her knees, doubled over, winded and in pain. She groaned, and took a deep breath to try to get her balance back, but as she tried to push herself back onto her feet Barosi struck her in the head with a mighty backhand that knocked her to the ground several feet away. Ari once again tasted blood in her mouth and her ears rang from the blow as she scrambled away from the gladiator approaching her again.

He didn’t even need to run to keep up with her. The days of constant fighting, the time spent on her feet hanging from a ceiling, the amount of the knockout drug still in her system, the heat and the noise and stress and the pain overwhelmed Ari. She could barely move away from him, and it took all of her energy to scramble away from his stomps and punches at her. Soon she had backed herself up against the edge of the arena, and while she managed to stand, she could only do so by supporting herself against the wall.

She saw the punch coming and dived out of the way just in time, hitting the ground hard. She saw Barosi’s fist slam into the wall, causing cracks to spread out through the very stone in a small radius, but if his bleeding fist pained him he showed no sign of it. Instead, he reached his fingers into the cracks, widening them, and when they were wide enough to fit his entire hand in he ripped an entire chunk of stone out of the wall. Ari expected him to approach her with it, try to strike her, but instead he simply turned and threw it at her. Even if she had had the energy to dodge she wasn’t sure she would have been fast enough. The thrown weapon hit her directly in the chest and she cried out as she felt her bones break under the impact.

She heard some commotion in the stands above her, but assumed the crowd were excited for the ending they expected was coming, and she thought they were right. Try as she might, she couldn’t even stand anymore, even if she had the strength in her arms to push herself up without her broken ribs stopping her, her legs were too unstable and weak to support her weight. She dragged herself onto her back and lay face up. Ellarien gave up.

“...do it,” she breathed, voice failing her. “I...I can’t…”

Barosi stood above her, a behemoth next to her. For a moment Ari thought she saw a spark of pity flash across his green eyes, but it could easily have been a trick of her barely conscious mind. The fighter said nothing. He simply picked up the stone and held it up, ready to bring it down upon her head.

Ari closed her eyes and waited for the end.

She felt a rush of air pass over her and a crashing sound above her, something fell to the ground beside her, but nothing seemed to have hit her. The crowd gasped. Ari felt nothing, and for a second thought she was already dead, letting out the breath she only now realised she was holding. But as she did so, she realised she was breathing. Not dead. Scared to do so, but curiosity getting the better of her, she tentatively opened her eyes to see nothing but sky and a few shocked faces of a crowd on the edge of her vision. She looked over in the direction Barosi had been standing above her.

She saw the rock lying just inches from her head. She saw Barosi picking himself up off the floor a few feet away.

And between him and herself, impossibly, she saw Veran.


	10. Chapter 10

Barosi stood shockingly quickly and rushed Veran, but they were ready for it, ducking to the side and catching Barosi’s arm as he punched at them, twisting his arm and using his own momentum to flip him over in midair and slam him down onto the ground. Wasting no time, Veran kicked him hard in the side and twisted his arm again, and Barosi roared in pain for the first time Ari had heard as his shoulder was dislocated. Veran kicked him again for good measure and dropped his arm, running over to where Ari was lying, barely awake.

“Ari!” they yelled as they did. “Ari, thank the Grid you’re alive, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry it took us so long to find you!”

Ari didn’t say anything to start with. Hurt as she was, barely able to move as she was, only just staying conscious as she was, she couldn’t do anything but smile as wide as her aching muscles would allow, so glad she was to see Veran. She gathered as much strength as she could and reached out to touch their arm to convince herself that they weren’t a hallucination. It was real. Veran was here to rescue her.

“...how?” she managed. “How did you find me?”

“Well after we fought our way out of the trap we went back to find you and couldn’t,” Veran started talking so fast Ari could barely understand them. “So we used the ship to track your Solarix signal and we almost found it but they kept moving it and then we realised that they would have taken it away from you so we-” they stopped as they heard Barosi getting back up again behind them. “You know what, I can explain later. Don’t move, I’ll take care of this.”

Barosi stood up using his good arm, his dislocated one hanging down at his side. Veran turned into a fighting stance to face him, but he walked over to the wall of the arena and lifted his hanging arm so it was braced against the wall. With a pained grunt he thrust his shoulder towards the wall, pushing his shoulder back into place. He flexed his arm a couple of times to test it, wincing slightly, but satisfied that his arm was usable again. With that he turned back to Veran, but Veran was already charging him.

Barosi lashed out with a quick jab intended for Veran’s face, but Veran nudged it aside and threw their whole weight behind their elbow, striking directly into Barosi’s throat. Despite towering over them, Barosi stumbled backwards, choking, and Veran followed with a swift kick to his right knee and his leg gave out from under him. Veran spun and aimed a kick at the side of Barosi’s head to knock him down, but he caught it, getting his breathing under control and standing swiftly, dragging Veran off balance by holding their leg up higher. Before they fell over, however, Veran hopped and kicked up at Barosi’s wrist with their free leg. He let go and Veran landed on their hands, springing backwards onto their feet, but he was already upon them, swinging his forearm at their head to knock them over. Veran leaned backwards fast and avoided the hit by an inch, but Barosi reacted quicker and raised his arm, bringing his elbow swiftly down into Veran’s chest. They hit the ground, gasping and winded, and Barosi jumped into the air, spinning to gain momentum and aiming another elbow strike at his opponent. Veran, however, rolled out of range just in time, springing to their feet. Barosi scrambled up as quickly as he could, but Veran was faster, stepping forward and thrusting their leg out in a devastating sideways kick directly to Barosi’s rising head. He fell back again, awake and angry, but stunned.

Veran ran back over to check on Ari. “Can you stand? We need to get out of here.”

“Is...is Remi here?” Ari asked. “Where is she?”

“Remi’s on the ship,” Veran reassured her. “She’s destroying all the reinforcements and orbital defences they’ve got. She was ready to tear them apart when we found you, took a lot of convincing to let me come down to get you. She wanted to do it herself.”

“How did you…” Ari coughed painfully before she could finish the sentence.

“I’m not a good enough pilot to take out the Raider ships,” Veran said. “But she is. Anyway, I need to get you out.”

Veran scooped their arm around Ari’s back and started to lift. Ari started trying to lift herself, but her chest erupted in pain and she fell back to earth, crying out. Veran frowned, concerned, and reached out to examine Ari’s injuries, hesitating and pausing for permission, but going ahead when Ari nodded her consent. They felt Ari’s chest, their frown growing more worried as they did. Finally they let go and held their hand up to their ear.

“Remi, come in,” they said into their earpiece. “Remi, can you hear me?”

“I hear you Veran,” Ari could only barely make out Remi’s voice coming through Veran’s earpiece. “Have you found her? Is she okay?”

“I’ve found her,” Veran responded and Ari heard Remi half sigh and half laugh in relief. “But she’s in bad shape. Three broken ribs, a broken right wrist, and she’s pretty badly injured. We’re going to need evacuation as soon as you can.”

“I’m on my way,” Remi responded, voice serious again, punctuating each word with emphasis as Ari heard her focusing on flying the ship. “As. Soon. As. I. Finish these vermin off. I can’t pick you up until they’re gone, they’ll just pick us off. Five minutes.”

“No problem,” Veran responded, and turned back to Ari. “Remi will be here in just a minute, we’ll be alright, okay? We’ll be fine.” Ari wasn’t sure if they were trying to convince her or themself, but nodded just the same.

A noise sounded across the entire arena and Ari suddenly realised that the normally vocal announcer had been very quiet about Veran’s arrival. The roar of the crowd had similarly died down, as most of the audience appeared to have fled at some point since Veran’s timely arrival. A voice now rang out, but it wasn’t the usual announcer. Rather, it was the captain’s voice.

“Get them! Kill them both!” he screamed into the loudspeaker. “I will give whatever you want to the fighter who brings me both their heads!”

The gate at the other end of the arena opened, and Ari lifted her head to see many gladiators she had fought and several she hadn’t emerging from the darkness. Barosi was again picking himself up, refusing to stay down. He was amazingly tough, Ari thought, his reputation clearly well earned. Squeezing her eyes shut and gritting her teeth through the pain, she stood herself up and staggered to Veran’s side, standing in as close to a combat stance as her injuries allowed.

“Wh-” Veran did a double take when they saw Ari at their side. “What are you doing? You’re badly injured!”

“There’s...there’s too many…” Ari breathed, struggling to get the words out. “I’ll...see if I can distract…” she trailed off.

“Ari, I-” Veran started to shout, but to Ari’s surprise they stopped, stood up straight, and took a deep breath.

“Ari,” they said, remarkably calm. “I know you want to help. I know how much that means to you. But you can barely stand, much less fight. You need to sit down. Help will be here soon.”

Ari tried to force her mouth open to argue, but Veran cut her off again.

“I know you want to protect me, protect everyone,” they continued. “But I’m not a child. I’m a Solar Ranger. I can handle this.”

They looked straight into Ari’s eyes, and Ari saw confidence and strength that Veran had never expressed before, alongside the honesty in their expression. “Let me handle this.”

Stunned by their quiet conviction, Ari simply nodded, and slowly stepped backwards and sat back down. They were right, she could barely stay on her feet, and she realised they were telling the truth. Veran could handle this.

The group of fighters was getting closer now and Veran turned to face them. Barosi, now standing up again, hung back, clearly intent on letting the group tire Veran out before killing them both himself. Veran raised their left hand to shoulder level.

“Time’s up, Solar Rangers!” screeched the captain into the loudspeaker.

Veran scoffed. “Good luck. Solar Power!”

Red light engulfed them as they morphed, summoning their shining mace into their hand. The sight gave several of the oncoming fighters pause and they stopped in their tracks. Veran took the opportunity, lifting their mace over their head and throwing it with all their might at the remaining approaching fighters. They didn’t have a chance to react and it hit one of the central figures, sending him flying backwards and tripping up two of the gladiators who had hung back. The others stopped and looked in shock at the blow, but when they turned back Veran was already in the air and aiming a brutal downwards punch straight into another fighter, who hit the ground hard. From experience Ari knew that that wouldn’t keep him down, but it didn’t matter. Just seconds into the fight and despite being vastly outnumbered, Veran already had their foes on the back foot. She marvelled at how much they had developed as a fighter in the time since they had first morphed.

A punch came towards them finally but they caught it effortlessly, twisting the arm and kicking the fighter’s leg out from under him. He spun in midair and landed hand on his head, collapsing to the ground. Without missing a beat, Veran kicked out behind them, hitting another fighter in the stomach and doubling him over, before turning round and catching his falling head with a mighty uppercut that lifted him off of the ground. One gladiator who had hung back rushed in with a swinging punch but Veran simply blocked it with enough force that he stumbled back, clutching his arm.

A fighter took the opportunity to break off from the group and started to approach Ari with menace in his eyes. She looked away from the main fight to focus her attention on him, and started to desperately look around for anything she could use as a weapon. She noticed the rock Barosi had thrown at her and tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy for her broken wrist to lift. Nonetheless, she kept trying in vain, as the Raider got closer and closer, and Ari looked away to avoid having to see his sinister grin. Harder and harder she tried to lift the rock, her tired and hurt mind unable to think of any other strategy to fend off or avoid the incoming attacker. Unable to lift the rock, however, she winced away as he stood over her. 

Before any blows came, however, she heard him moan in fear and looked back to see Veran’s resplendent figure lifting him off the ground with a single hand. They grabbed him with their other hand and threw his entire body away from Ari and he skidded across the loose sand towards his compatriots, who were now much more reluctant to attack. Even Barosi didn’t look like he was ready to step in at any moment, and seemed ready to flee if the situation got any worse.

“You’re pathetic!” the captain shouted over the loudspeaker. “All you, get them, or I will-”

He was interrupted by the situation getting even worse for the Raiders, as the ground in front of the group of fighters erupted into a cloud of sand and fire, followed by a series of more eruptions behind them and hitting the back wall of the arena, which started to sag and groan under the impact. Ari and Veran looked up to see their ship swooping above their heads, flying upwards into a loop and coming around for another strafing run. All of the remaining gladiators fled at this sight, unwilling to fight a spaceship equipped with such powerful lasers. Ari smiled weakly, her senses starting to fade again as her adrenaline wore off and she started to lose consciousness. Veran cheered.

The ship fired again, another series of explosions racking the ground of the arena and hitting the back wall, which collapsed entirely under the lasers. The ship slowed down as it entered the arena, narrowly avoiding clipping the other wall, but Ari knew Remi was too good of a pilot for that to happen. The ship came to a stop hovering just above the ground and the cargo bay doors slid open.

The captain howled impotently into the loudspeaker as Ari felt Veran gently pick her up off of the ground and run into the ship, taking care not to disturb her too much and make her injuries any worse. The bay doors closed behind them and the wind and shouts from outside were cut off, and all Ari could hear were the engines rumbling louder as the ship lifted up and took off, taking them away, as far away from the Meat Grinder as they could go. Ari closed her eyes and didn’t have the strength to open them again as all the fear and sadness and worry and regret and wishes of however long she had been there were washed away by the wave of relief overtaking her mind. She was free. Her teammates had rescued her. She was alive. She was safe.

“Thank you,” she whispered, all she could manage as she drifted away from consciousness, even as she could just about hear Remi running into the bay and shouting her name.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and passed out, and for the first time in a long time her last thought was not worry of what would wake her up again, but knowing that whatever it was, she was safe.

She awoke some time later, she didn’t know how much, and for the first time in what felt like forever she woke up not hanging in chains, but in a soft bed. Her body hurt still, but so much less than she had come to be used to. She lay with her eyes closed for a couple of minutes, just glad to be there. Glad to be alive.

She opened her eyes eventually, shutting them again quickly in the light that wasn’t bright, but took a little time to adjust to. She moved her head slightly and though it hurt a little, she powered through it, stretching her neck to allow for more movement. She was, indeed, in a bed in the ship’s medical bay, a blanket covering her legs, her chest and wrist wrapped in bandages, and much of the rest of her body covered in bandages and various plasters, the bright white medical supplies almost shining from the reflected light, in stark contrast to her own dark brown skin. The ship rumbled slightly underneath her, but it was subtle enough that Ari could tell they weren’t moving through an atmosphere, but drifting on low speed through the vacuum of space. 

She looked to her right and saw Remi and another wave of relief washed over her. Ari saw her body rise and fall slowly with her breathing and realised she was sleeping. She must have fallen asleep by her side, Ari realised, and again had a moment to savour just how lucky she was. She slowly moved her hand, careful not to bend her broken wrist, and held Remi’s that was resting on the side of the bed.

“Mm?” Remi mumbled as she gently woke up. “Ari? ARI!” She shouted suddenly as she realised who was holding her hand, then immediately wincing as she realised she had. “Damn, sorry, don’t wanna be loud.”

“Hi Remi,” Ari smiled back. “Good to see you.”

“Haze an’ hellfire, Ari,” Remi laughed back and suddenly the room seemed warmer for it. “Thank the Grid you’re alive. I’m so sorry it took so long to find you.”

“Remi,” Ari said. “You found me. That’s all that matters.”

“We, we were tracking your Shard, but the trail kept going cold,” Remi explained. “But then Veran realised that tracking your Shard wouldn’t necessarily lead to you, so we went back to where the ambush happened. We captured and took apart a Crimson Raider ship so we could see what kind of engine exhaust they left and then tracked that to where you were. I took out the defences while Veran went down to rescue you.”

“You...you tracked my Solarix Shard?” Ari questioned. “I thought they’d destroyed it? The captain who kept me prisoner was sure they had.”

“Really?” Remi asked. “It’s still sending a trace. In fact, we’re following it right now.”

“We are?” That confused Ari. The captain wasn’t lying, she was sure of it. As far as he knew, her Solarix Shard had been destroyed. He had been certain of it.

She shook her head. “We can sort that out later, what’s important is that you’re here, and you get better,” Remi smiled again and Ari saw tears of joy well up in her eyes, then felt the same tears in her own eyes. “Oh, stars, oh I’m so glad to see you again Ari, I’m so glad to see you!” She had to visibly hold herself back from embracing Ari so as not to hurt her anymore.

“Remi,” she said and Remi blinked the tears away. “The Raider who captured me. He was at Kozal Outpost. He was there when Veran became a ranger.”

Remi nodded darkly. “That explains why he was so fixated on us. We’ll get him, Ari, I promise.”

“No,” Ari shook her head. She needed to make her point. “He’s a captain now, and he wasn’t before, and he definitely had authority.”

“O...kay?” Remi said, before her eyes lit up in realisation. “Oh. Oh! And that trap, that was actually kinda clever, much more than we’ve really seen before from them!”

“Someone’s organising them,” Ari said.

Remi nodded in agreement. “No idea who, but they’ve got someone new in charge. We’ll need to look out for that.”

Just then, Veran’s voice came from outside the hall.

“Remi, can you come with me to the bridge? I think I’ve found a-” they stopped as they rounded the corner into the doorway and their eyes widened. “Ari! You’re awake!”

“Thanks to you,” Ari smiled back and Veran laughed slightly nervously, but mostly it seemed in joy.

“I can’t stay long, I need to show Remi something on the bridge, but it’s good to see you awake-”

“Wait,” Ari interrupted and tried to sit up, but her still broken ribs weren’t ready for that yet, so she settled on laying back down. “I need to say this.”

Veran stopped turning towards the corridor and looked back at her.

“I...I need to apologise,” Ari said slowly, trying not to strain herself.

“Ari, I…” Veran started, taking a moment to think. “I looked up to you two for a long time, ever since I heard about you to start with. I sometimes forget that you’re just as much people as heroes, you’ve got things to worry about. I forget that sometimes.”

Ari considered this for a moment, then answered: “no.”

Veran and Remi both blinked in surprise.

“That’s not an excuse for me to disrespect you,” she continued. “You were right, I haven’t been fair to you recently. You...you deserve more respect than I’ve been giving you. I’m sorry.”

Remi’s surprised expression softened into one of both understanding and pride. Of the two of them, Remi had always been much more in tune with her emotions, and had tried for years to help Ari be the same way.

“You saved my life today,” Ari said. “Thank you, Veran. I’m proud to call you my comrade. My friend.”

“So am I,” Remi agreed. “We’re both in your debt today, Veran. You called us heroes, and I’m flattered, but you’re just as much a hero. Thank you.”

“I…” Veran stumbled on their words, eyes welling up just as Ari and Remi’s had earlier. “I don’t know what to say, I…” they trailed off, overcome and stunned by the praise. “Thank you. Thank you. I’m proud to be here. I’m...proud to call you my friends too.”

They were all quiet, staying in that brief moment of connection for as long as they could. In that moment, they were together, and that was all they needed. The moment was interrupted by a beeping alarm from the direction of the bridge, but that moment was enough.

Veran laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” they shouted in the direction of the alarm. “Remi, can I show you this? I think I’ve got a lead.” With that, they fired off another smile and a wave to Ari, and dashed off down the hallway.

Remi looked apologetically at Ari, but Ari nodded her approval for her to go.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Remi promised and got up to leave.

“Wait,” Ari stopped her. “Before you go-” she started, then realised how she meant to finish the sentence and started to get nervous.

“Yeah?” Remi asked.

“I’ll...I’ll make a big gesture about it later, I promise but…” Ari paused, not sure if this was the right time.

“But?” Remi encouraged her to continue.

“Remi, I…” Ari finally gave up and decided to just ask her question. “Will you marry me?”

And Remi smiled and the smile lit up her entire face. Her smile warmed up the room and the entire ship and the entire universe. Ari saw her smile and was overwhelmed by how much she loved Remi and all the nerves disappeared. They were together again and that was all that was important.

“I’ll make a big gesture about it later, I promise, but…” Remi paused to blink away joyful tears again, and once again Ari felt herself doing the same. “Of course I will. I would love nothing more than to be your wife.”

Ari broke into a smile just as wide, unable to stop or control herself. Despite everything, all she could feel was joy. She was back with Remi and Veran. She and Remi would be married. Ari had spent so much of her life suppressing and controlling every emotion she felt but she could not contain her jubilation. She didn’t even bother trying to hold back her happy tears and simply let them flow as she laughed in relief and unbridled euphoria. 

Remi leaned over and kissed her gently. And everything was good.


End file.
